Listen to the whole dialogue if you can. It's interesting, if disturbing, because Klein and Favreau openly talk about using the shutdown to leverage the Democratic Party back into power. Why aren't they more circumspect? I have to assume they are cocksure that their listeners share their primary goal — the success of the Democratic Party.
१२ ऑक्टोबर, २०२५
"... you can wrap healthcare and tariffs and authoritarianism into a single argument...."
I'm listening to Ezra Klein, at 00:15:32, in the new episode of his podcast, "Jon Favreau on Where the Democrats Went Right":"I've been talking to members of the House and Senate, and both politically and morally, I've been going back to my big shutdown piece a month ago on the side that says you can wrap healthcare and tariffs and authoritarianism into a single argument, and it is worth doing that if only to set up the argument you're actually making — if only to make American politics about what it is really about. Partly if you believe this is an attentional event. I was talking with my staff and we were looking at coverage on the front pages and it's interesting how few front pages every day are running the shutdown.... And the shutdown has, instead of becoming the focusing event that ties together what is happening in American politics, it is one hermetically sealed event in American politics. And then there are these other events happening simultaneously and coverage is splitting between them."
पोस्ट्स
१११ टिप्पण्या:
A lot of time their "messaging" is kind of similar to an LLM hallucination about a given set of facts. They find a sentence that sounds good, and they believe it, but they know that if they went so far as to lay out their reasoning and the facts that it is based on, they know that voters won't buy it, so they don't, they just skim across on the top.
"it's interesting how few front pages every day are running the shutdown"
I consider that healthy.
I'm suspecting that the Progressive Democrats think they can drag the shutdown out until the Obamacare subsidies run out, at which point anybody that has health insurance from the (Miracle) Marketplace will soon discover just how much their insurance costs, and just how sarcastic the 'Affordable' Care Act's name is meant to be. The lucky people will only have their premiums ratchet up by 50% or so.
I'm thinking that the Democrats see this as a winning strategy, that voters will somehow be pissed off at Republicans for the explosion in premium costs, and will somehow not remember who voted for them (i.e. Obamacare), and who didn't vote for a Clean Resolution to avoid the blast. I can't predict the future, but I do think Democrats are still badly out of touch.
Why aren’t they more circumspect? The party that thinks democracy means they win and get to do whatever they want and the rules don’t apply to them? Why aren’t those guys more circumspect?
Because circumspection doesn’t work for them. It doesn’t advance the revolution, which is all that matters to them, no matter how they frame it.
Healthcare and Tariffs and Authoritarianism, Oh My! Klein gives Millennials a bad name
"Why aren't they more circumspect? I have to assume they are cocksure that their listeners share their primary goal — the success of the Democratic Party. "
There was a time they'd argue "what's good for the country". It's kind of shocking how they now argue "what's good for the party".
the success of the Democratic Party
Ezra, what is best in life?
The problem the Democrats have is that they can never let their true agenda slip, which is that they want to "fundamentally transform America." Notice how he kind of left the meaning open, and it's quite plain that "steamrolling traditional American values" is pretty high on the agenda of the Democrats.
Favreau pretends to be non partisan? I think that is your assumption and not something he would say.
It is easy to understand. Success for Democrats is misery for America.
"Two Democrat party operatives walk into a bar..."
only if you are an idiot, but Klein has shown that clearly
The rewards of being a committed Democratic partisan are more accessible and substantial than Republican forms of partisanship.
Health care is correlated with medical care in extreme conditions.
Tarrifs compensate for labor and environmental arbitrage through outsourcing and insourcing schemes.
Our Constitution is designed to mitigate authoritarian progress in favor of demos-cracy evolving under limited governance.
I listened to the point when Favreau said: ‘…things are getting pretty scary in America now.’ Will it ever be possible for the left not to base their arguments on emotion? It’s churlish and embarrassing. Sheesh…
Many voters are more concerned someone will unwrap cock and balls in the women’s locker room…
tariffs are about that thing, the dems used to believe in, back in the 80s, but then they were bought off by major importers,
we've already seen this movie, and like tron ares, it's clapped out,
cocksure. Exactly..
Our healthcare system is a gigantic authoritarian Democrat Party mess.
The left are on the fascist march to make it illegal if you want to pay for healthcare without insurance.
Got that? illegal.
THAT IS THE DEFINITION OF AUTHORITARIAN fascism.
My folks are trying to get into a rehab facility - and offered to pay for it without insurance - and they were told NO.
That is the all democrat Party. 100% democratic party fascism.
safe street, economic revitalization and prioritization of health care dollars, thats what happens when you hang out favreau and tommy v, your brain atrophies,
Shutting down government is authoritarian? Next they are going to tell us “literally Hitler” arranged peace for Israel.
So now that Favreau has shamed the propagandists over what they’re not writing do the flying monkeys deliver?
its like the disney press kit 'press any key'
"I have to assume they are cocksure that their listeners share their primary goal — the success of the Democratic Party. "
I think that is now a secondary goal now. The primary goal is defeating Trump.
(my folks have insurance. they are being dropped at the end of the year.)
"Why aren't they more circumspect? I have to assume they are cocksure that their listeners share their primary goal" Umm, yeah. Give them credit: their goal is always the goal. They keep their eyes on the one prize, even if they are sometimes myopic. They have reason to be reasonably sure: Americans like getting other people's money, and Dems are the party that wants to give them more of it (in this case, give insurance companies and health care providers enough to keep "costs" low). Historically, progs could afford not to be circumspect: who cares what righties hear and think? But the old arrogance of the prog bubble now carries greater risks: the right is listening, understands the left better, and has tools to respond.
The video needs a few more quick cuts.
From my perspective the most useful thing coming from the shutdown is that it has lifted the curtain hiding the reality that Obamacare cannot function without massive subsidies from the general fund. The question is, what do we do about it? Carrying on dishonestly with the subsidies buried in obscure corners of appropriation bills, i e., continuing business as it has been done since the days when Obama was President, ought to be a nonstarter no matter what Klein and Favreau want.
Democrats can't believe there are people who matter who don't agree with them. I'm pretty sure that their definition of people who matter is not congruent with people who vote at the present time. I might be delusional, but I think they will not come close to taking back the House and Senate and may lose a few Governors and Attorneys General in 2026.
The corrupt left will not stop until our healthcare system pours money into their pockets - and we are all forced to do what they want when they want - without freedom of choice.
Democrats do this to everything they touch.
Bonus - they are lying liars who lie.
Bonus - they are economic morons - with terrible harmful ideas.
". . . and its interesting how few front pages are running the shutdown". Boy Howdy is that an admission that the Dims have lost control of the messaging. Not that I care all that much.
Alinsky #9: The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.
Trump disarmed the shutdown.
Here is the secret: People have discovered who/what is harmed by the shutdown.
"Boy Howdy is that an admission that the Dims have lost control of the messaging."
Well, it may be a sign that they do still control the messaging by burying an unpopular piece of news that reflects poorly on the Democrats in the minds of most people.
Klein and Favreau are just paid liars. Romney and McCain and Fox News were in charge of keeping Republican voters in line. The rest of the media and schumer and Pelosi keep the democrats in line.
They are only talking to the really stupid people that still support the democrat party at this point.
i'm not totally sold on tariffs, but the fact that the dems want to get rid of them, like 'the bunny rabbit' in the abominable snowman segment
i understand the argument behind it, unlike say klein a fine product of the uc feeder belt, and who knows where favreau came from,
Tariffs are not a novel deal. They're just more Diverse, equitable, and inclusive under Trump.
They are cocksure d heads I guess. One thing they are against is fining the massive insurance and Medicare fraud that is being uncovered, we can’t afford to stop that because the fraudsters donate to dems. Dems are like the old popes who let people into heaven if you paid up. Donate to a dem, get out of jail. Like The pardon racket.
You know what, America is on a roll and the dems are being dragged behind.
So extend the Obama care scam for one hear and bring up a reform motion every month and let dems vote against it, that all you can do now.
One year.
Nearly 40 trillion dollars in "health care" made affordable through redistributive change schemes paid forward to our unPlanned Posterity. Now that is a "burden"... or is it burden?
The film The White Ribbon (2009) explored the antecedents to Germany's politics before WW1.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1149362/
IMO, it's not too complicated. The establishment gets set in its ways and resists changes that affect their power and control. They then twist moral standards to serve personal goals. They then brainwash and manipulate their own supporters to serve personal goals. The system then collapses in a revolution or a snap back to right-wing stability.
There are none so blind that those who will not see. Corruption and conflicts of interest do not allow honesty or self-awareness.
The Democratic Party is making the Fascist Party look like a bunch of pansies.
Favreaux is pissed off that Trump ending the Middle East war after 2,500 years has taken Schumer's Shutdown off the front page.
They could care less about the hostages the Hamas terrorists have been raping.
Not much on the shutdown because nobody cares.
I am fine if they stay shutdown until June 31. Or the 12th of never whichever comes first.
John Henry
Democrats have what has become known as the “Fecal Touch”… everything they touch, or even breathe on, turns to shit.
They highlighted that all of the Democrat leaders come from New York and California. Pelosi, Schumer, AOC, Newsom, Jeffries, Mamdani (Klein and Favreau also coastal) That was a good point and so obvious but I had never noticed it.
Peachy said...
The left are on the fascist march to make it illegal if you want to pay for healthcare without insurance.
Got that? illegal.
I was reading a month or two back about someone who found that paying cash for some prescription drug was cheaper than the co-pay with insurance.
When she tried to pay cash, the pharmacy would not let them because the pharmacy knew they had insurance. And if they had insurance, they HAD to pay it on the insurance and could not pay cash.
Thank God I have the VA!
John Henry
The WaPoo had it right the other day: The Affordable Care Act was never affordable.
The underlying issue is that Obamacare did not solve affordability. Obamacare ultimately limited competition among health insurers -- a number of states are down to one insurer. Obamacare required the Federal Government to subsidize insurance premiums at significant levels for large numbers of people.
In trying to sell Obamacare to the public, assurances were made as to the ability of Obamacare to control premiums over the short and mid-term. Rates have gone up significantly which has required the government to step in and subsidize for many. Obamacare has done little to control costs and the program was over sold.
There is obviously no easy solution and the Republicans have certainly not offered one.
Democrats: You must do this thing which we can't afford and you must pay for it even as we are in a trillion dollar deficit.
Republicans: Well, we keep trying to repeal it, that will solve it.
Democrats: You must do this thing which we cannot afford and you must pay for it despite the deficit of a trillion dollars...
what about procedure called DEEMED PASSED
The only way to wrap all the different issues into one issue is 100% agreement with any diversion being punished. I don't think people's opinion about tariffs is tied to their opinion about prescription abortion drugs except by insisting that everything Trump supports is wrong.
“ There is obviously no easy solution and the Republicans have certainly not offered one.”
And the democrats solution is pay more pay more pay more. They are not negotiating they are demanding one thing, your money.
speaking of healthcare and
Breast Cancer Awareness Month, observed every October
has Favreau reported on Hillary breast?
’ There is obviously no easy solution…’
‘…a number of states are down to one insurer.’
I wish I could think of one!! lol
The transcribed snippet doesn't make me hungry for the whole conversation. It looks like people trying to give the impression that they are saying more than they actually are saying.
After years of Republicans being blamed for shutdowns, this is the Schumer shutdown and "messaging" isn't going to change that.
"You must do this thing which we cannot afford and you must pay for it despite the deficit of a trillion dollars."
Trump’s base is an interesting coalition that defies traditional political categories, blending social conservatism with a form of fiscal liberalism. He understands his base better than you do and better than I do frankly.
"There is obviously no easy solution and the Republicans have certainly not offered one."
The democrats strong-armed this program through with no negotiations with the Republicans.
There is a level of hypocrisy in how Trump's supporters—and the broader Republican coalition—embrace deficit-exploding spending and benefits when it suits their priorities, while decrying deficits under Democrats. This aligns closely with the idea of Trump's base being "fiscally liberal" in practice: they prioritize tangible economic perks (like tax cuts, stimulus, or infrastructure) over abstract concerns like balanced budgets or national debt sustainability.
Bill maher said one had to be 'dragged' to it, regardless the objections of course it wasnt being affordable
..."There is obviously no easy solution and the Republicans have certainly not offered one. ...." lol ! Obamacare, the abomination of the ages, why won't the Republicans fix it for us ?
While I'm mindful there are always RINOs in the room, let us simply review the voting records to see who's more serious about fixing Obamacare, shall we? How many Democrats voted to repeal it again? Hmmmm? Is that number greater than zero? Why no, it isn't.
Its not as hard a problem to fix as one might think. Start with mandated pricing transparency for 100% of procedures and drugs, and include transparency for what foreign citizens pay for the same drugs and procedures.
It will be very painful for the for-profit medical industry, and they will especially feel the pain of losing all the hidden subsidies that are imposed on them by the 'give-it-away-for-free' government, but the rage from the paying customers will be a cleansing one. Because after all, illegals don't vote - right?
Ann, I think Klein’s comment is being read out of context here. He’s not talking about “using” the shutdown to engineer Democratic power — he’s lamenting how our politics and media treat every issue as a separate drama. His “wrap healthcare, tariffs, and authoritarianism into a single argument” line isn’t a partisan plot; it’s a call to explain how these things connect structurally — how governance, economic fairness, and democratic norms interrelate.
It’s a critique of political fragmentation, not a strategy memo. Klein’s point is that the shutdown could have served as a focusing moment for understanding that larger dysfunction, but it hasn’t. That’s actually a fairly neutral media analysis, even if it happens to be voiced by someone with progressive leanings.
And I think it’s worth noting that every major party — left or right — engages in framing. When Paul Ryan talked about uniting tax reform, deregulation, and national security under a single message, that wasn’t a “scheme,” it was political storytelling. Klein’s doing the same — but describing it openly doesn’t make it sinister; it makes it transparent.
In case the Democrats have not noticed, there is a world changing event going on in the Middle East right now. Trump just spent a long time answering questions from the press on Air Force One traveling to Tel Aviv.
The shutdown will be dealt with, as it always is, with massive finger pointing and told-you-so's. But the important thing is taking place in the Middle East. I don't expect some tunnel-focused politicos to get it. Thankfully, I don't look to them for anything.
This TDS is a super serious disease. Don't these Dems realize that TDS won't work when JD Vance is running for President? The irrationality of the Dems doesn't appeal to people who are independent or in the middle.
Oh, and wait for Trump to announce his new Sovereign Wealth Fund with shares of Fannie and Freddie in it. "A chicken in every pot."
On Tuesday President Trump will start posting the Hamas is less intransigent than Democrats.
The Democrats expected Trump to make the shutdown a big deal, which would have made it the center of attention. He has chosen to ignore it. That is great strategy, and works in many iffy situations: don't act as expected. If someone shows you a knife, ask them for a cigarette, that sort of thing. As the saying goes, "What if they gave a shutdown, and no one cared."
This TDS is a super serious disease.
When Charles Krauthammer coined the term it was Bush Derangement Syndrome. It has migrated to Trump, and will migrate to whoever replaces him.
Like andromeda it mutates constantly
"There is obviously no easy solution"
There were certainly better solutions, something along the lines of the French system for instance. Of all the health care alternatives, the Democrats picked the worst possible, worse than doing nothing. Everyone knew it was sh!t, except maybe Democrats. The Democratic Party is simply incompetent.
On Tuesday President Trump will start posting the Hamas is less intransigent than Democrats.
======
Hamas expects 2 state solution
why not D expect 2 Nation solution?
Also, social progress, human rites, and Diversity, Equivocation, and Indifference.
'I'm listening to Ezra Klein, at 00:15:32, in the new episode of his podcast, "Jon Favreau on Where the Democrats Went Right":'
That's a quarter of an hour you'll never get back. Is that what you use those appleseeds or earbuds or whatever for?
With the future VDS, the VD is included.
"Ezra, what is best in life?"
To spill my warm ersatz cocoa on the crotch of my plaid pajama bottoms.
"democratic norms interrelate."
Who knew that "democratic norms" included opening up our borders to millions of migrants, in contravention of the laws enacted by our duly elected Congress, and putting those migrants, who, let's be honest, were let in in order to override the vote of existing Americans, and in contravention of the duly passed laws, spending healthcare money on them.
Is that what you mean by "democratic norms"?
Oh yeah, and let's not forget the constant lawfare waged by the Biden Administration against Trump and his allies.
What the Democrats prefer is that you accept there pronouncements of "democratic norms" and "fairness" really mean, in actual terms of policy. Because, you know, their actual, rubber hits the road, policies are not very popular.
If Julia from Obama's Central Planning had a son, he'd look like Pajama Boy.
@ Ronald J. Ward
My statements relate to the whole episode, not to the quoted part taken in isolation.
I was a cradle Democrat until I wasn't. Limited my participation in Party politics as much as possible and did service provision. Consequence of youth, class, and family.
Then I was a Party Republican, more of a paleo social conservative, because of the awful, Democrat-driven programs that I witnessed destroying the most vulnerable lives and destroying the foundations of equal justice. I rose in the state Party for two years. I spent most of that time training fellow populist Republicans by teaching organizing skills and advocating for Trump.
I was right. I still have precisely the same values I had when I was 12.
The political world swirls around you. If it does not, you're not paying attention.
Fair enough, Ann — but that’s exactly why context matters. I listened to that section in the broader flow, and I still don’t hear Klein and Favreau scheming to “leverage” the shutdown for partisan gain. They’re analyzing how disconnected political narratives weaken both parties’ ability to explain what’s happening to voters.
If you think the rest of the episode shows otherwise, I’d be genuinely interested in which part you believe reveals that. Otherwise, it seems more like you’re interpreting a discussion about framing and coherence as one about manipulation and power, which are two very different things.
It's interesting, if disturbing, because Klein and Favreau openly talk about using the shutdown to leverage the Democratic Party back into power.
They're delusional. It's been a while since I saw a poll on the shutdown, but the last one had 65% of respondents blaming Schumer and the Democrats.
I might be delusional, but I think they will not come close to taking back the House and Senate and may lose a few Governors and Attorneys General in 2026.
Oh, I agree. I'm convinced that an enormous portion of the Democrat Party's revenue for the past twenty years or more was actually taxpayer dollars diverted from USAID and other government slush funds that have been eliminated this year, with much of the rest coming from the Soros octopus and other opaque networks funded by shadowy Bond-villain billionaires that are now under proctoscopic scrutiny for financing Antifa terrorism. Whoever has been paying for the pallets of bricks that are routinely dumped on city streets before left-wing protests is going to be carted off to prison pretty soon now. The peculiar ActBlue micro-donation scandal is quite obviously illegal money laundering, probably from Chinese and other foreign sources, and will be rolled up shortly with many prosecutions. Add the scrutiny that fraud-by-mail and contaminated voter rolls now face from the Feds, and the takeover of Dominion by a Republican, and I think the entire apparatus of Democrat election-stealing has taken one horrifically punishing blow after another. I would not be the least bit surprised to see their vote totals fall by 10-20 percent in the next two elections, with massive losses in Congress and a landslide victory for Rubio or Vance in 2028. I hope we use this opportunity to kick them when they're down, just as hard as we possibly can.
There were certainly better solutions, something along the lines of the French system for instance. Of all the health care alternatives, the Democrats picked the worst possible, worse than doing nothing.
The Swiss and Singaporean systems have much more to offer us than the French. Even the German system would have been better.
There's no question that Obama and the corrupt Democrats were 100% in the pocket of the big insurance companies when they passed Obamacare in 2010, which is why they gave us the worst of all possible outcomes. I warned my friends at the time: save your insurance statements from 2009 and compare them with what you'll be paying in five or ten years. I promise you, Obamacare will cost you far more than what we had before it.
What is authoritarianism other than Trump using his legitimate authority as president?
To the left, "authoritarian" is Trump doing things they don't like.
Simple as that.
I hear these two arguing as a debate about history vs. sociology as the foundational explanation of events and the driver of real change. People are influenced by what happens, by history. They are also influenced by sociology which separates their response to history from the events of history and analyzes it as "a story", "a narrative" which fulfills some emotional need which psychology can analyze - need for a father, need for a group identity. There was a story on a recent blog post asserting that support for Trump is some sort of mass fart or gas main explosion in protest at low social status and that's an example. Then on this podcast we hear how the Dem brand is in tatters (YAY!!) and how there is need to sell better (Favreau) or ask themselves why they aren't selling better (Klein). But this is the sociology level. Sociology cannot respond to history but only to the response people make to history. And at the very end both Favreau amd Klein seem to realize that for them with their sociological mindsets the reactions of real Americans to history are written in indecipherable hieroglyphics which they are poring over like cryptographers looking for the key to Linear A. I mean the part at the very end where Favreau starts talking about the need for men who believe the story they are telling - men like Bernie Sanders or Mamdani. And where Klein asks why the Dems are telling the story the elites tell themselves, i.e., Trump supporters are just a fart that thinks it's coherent speech. Once Democrats were the voice of the workers, now they are the voice of the bosses and they will never win again if they keep that up, says Klein. But why has it happened? History, Jon and Ezra, not sociology, has those answers. If you read a non-Marxist, that is a non-sociological history of America, your mind will tell you as you read what has happened to the Democrats and what the Americans now believe. You will see that Trump is aligned with deep America and you yourselves are aligned with the shallows of power with your deadened minds twitching like frog legs to the jabs of careerism. If you read history, you will change. "Enter these enchanted woods, you who dare."
"Fair enough, Ann — but that’s exactly why context matters. I listened to that section in the broader flow, and I still don’t hear Klein and Favreau scheming to “leverage” the shutdown for partisan gain."
Here's a transcript of the whole show if it's too much of a pain to listen to the whole thing, not just "that section in the broader flow."
https://app.podscribe.com/episode/139802053?transcriptVersionReqId=87d08d91-6dd2-4fad-b158-7a14c8d4d771
I can't quote the whole thing. I could try to pull the most revealing quotes. I link to it. I advise people to listen (or read) the whole thing. I invite people to form their own judgment. I'm not trying to manipulate anything here.
But I'm genuinely disturbed by the shutdown and seeing these 2 men analyze it as leverage for the Democratic Party to get something out of its predicament of having lost power. They lost the election. They don't get to put their policies in place. That's democracy.
Froom the transcript: "But this goes back to the strategic divide I was asking about a minute ago. Which is there is a division in the party about whether or not you want to call attention to [to the lawlessness and the militarization of our cities]. You know, many say, look, Trump is not popular right now on immigration, but immigration is still a better issue for him than healthcare, than tariffs, than cost of living. Immigration is an issue where republicans are more trusted in Democrats less trusted. This is true on crime. This is true on, on, on a number of places where the Trump administration is deploying its most lawless and frightening methods. And so the argument from this faction is, you do not want to make American politics about this. That the path of wisdom is, yeah, criticize it, but do the smart things that will allow you to take back the house in about a year. And you know, then you can actually start reining this in. But a shutdown is not really leveraged to rein anything in. It's leveraged to draw attention. So draw attention to your best issue, try to use that, try to win the midterms...."
And here's Ezra Klein's introduction to the whole thing: "The ongoing government shutdown is the first real strategic test of Democrats in Trump's second term. It is the first time when they have overcome enough of their internal divisions of choose a fight, choose a message, choose a set of demands, and actually take a risk. Behind this fight are a bunch of strategic schisms in the party over whether or not it makes sense to confront Trump in this way, to use what leverage they have to take this kind of risk — schisms over whether or not to fight on lawlessness, authoritarianism, democracy, or to only focus on pocketbook issues. And now we're in the shutdown and the road out of it and towards the midterms and eventually towards 2028 is gonna require Democrats to face not just these but a bunch of other schisms in their party over what kind of strategy works for them, what kind of voters they're trying to win back, and what those voters actually want to talk through both how we got here and where the Democratic party is going."
He's directing us to think of the conversation in terms of the Democratic Party leveraging the shutdown! He didn't hide that. He forefronted it!
It has long disturbed me that the Party of “Never Let a Crisis Go to Waste” always game plans these scenarios to garner more power and control. It is what they DO. Once you see it you can’t UNSEE it. Sociopathy has control of one of our two major parties.
Notice how in crisis mode it’s all about the Party. Gone is the usual fake emoting “what about the children?” etc. Now it’s how do we leverage the WIC defunding we did to Trump’s tariffs?” There are no more vulnerable people in their minds than the poor democrats who find themselves in the minority without leverage. Elected democrats that is. “Fuck the people depending on government services we have a shutdown to win!”
…it’s sickening but at the same time this is how the strategists are paid to think. If anyone is allowed to think like this it's them…
…if you’re offended by it, remember that the next time you go to vote…
Don't these Dems realize that TDS won't work when JD Vance is running for President?
They'll just re-brand it as VDS.
wildswan,
Re your closing line, with today's Party of Moloch -- er, I mean Democrats --- it's more like Lasciate ogni speranza, voi che entrate ("Abandon all hope, ye who enter !")
I'm still waiting for my $2500.
They'll just re-brand it as VDS.
And the will be articles and editorials that pretend they never called Trump a Hitler but JD Vance is the second coming of Adolph and Attila the Hun wrapped into a single human being.
Ann, I read that section too, but I think Klein’s framing is analytical, not conspiratorial. He’s describing how Democrats debate their own leverage during a shutdown — not instructing them how to use it. Both parties weigh strategy in these moments; that’s just politics. His larger point is that Democrats often fail to connect issues like healthcare, tariffs, and authoritarianism into one coherent story. That’s media analysis, not manipulation.
You could say he literally urged Democrats to “use what leverage they have,” but I read that as simply acknowledging how shutdowns work — leverage is built into the process, and both sides use it to press priorities. Klein’s focus was on the party’s internal divide: whether to spend that leverage drawing attention to authoritarian trends or stick to pocketbook issues. He’s analyzing the chessboard, not moving the pieces.
mezzrow said...
"Two Democrat party operatives walk into a bar...”
And they walk out millionaires. Accompanying them out is their millionaire GOPe buddy who had been drinking with them. And America is stiffed with a $37t bar tab.
Neither of these rackets has pure motives, but at the bottom of it, Republican's instincts are to devise ways to run the country for the benefit of citizens and commerce, often cynically, while Democrats devise ways to trick the voter and persuade them for their vote. I think this is why they often win when they really have proposed nothing of substance, unless it's tactically useful. This broadcast brings that point home. Democrats sell emancipation from responsibility, on the assurance that they take care of all of that. Managing the affairs of the nation is secondary, and in service to maintaining power.
Dave Begley said...
“This TDS is a super serious disease.”
But is it covered under Obamacare?
Hassayamper said...
“I'm convinced that an enormous portion of the Democrat Party's revenue for the past twenty years or more was actually taxpayer dollars diverted from USAID and other government slush funds that have been eliminated this year, with much of the rest coming from the Soros octopus and other opaque networks funded by shadowy Bond-villain billionaires that are now under proctoscopic scrutiny for financing Antifa terrorism.”
Twenty years ago I would’ve thought you a complete loon and backed away slowly. Twenty seconds ago I was nodding my head in complete agreement.
And the will be articles and editorials that pretend they never called Trump a Hitler but JD Vance is the second coming of Adolph and Attila the Hun wrapped into a single human being.
At some point ex-president Trump will offer some mild criticism of President Vance, or President Rubio or DeSantis for that matter, and instantly the flying monkeys of the news media will jump all over it. He'll be portrayed as an "elder statesman" afforded "strange new respect", and whoever the Republican President is will have venom heaped upon him.
It's impossible to listen to a beta cuck who speaks with a lisp.
- Krumhorn
By my rough count, since WWII the Republican nominees for President are now 9 times more Hitler than Hitler, while simultaneously becoming elder statesmen, but sometimes (usually) only after they are dead.
Has anyone in the history of the United States ever doubted that shutdowns are engineered by the party out of power solely for political purposes, i .e., to help them get back into power?
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