Tim Harford Talking To The Machine

Republicans failed to retake the Senate in the 2022 midterms, owing in large part to what GOP leader Mitch McConnell had identified before the election as a “candidate quality” problem. The strategy of running millionaire candidates who could self-fund and were handpicked by Donald Trump was a bust. So did Republicans learn from that?

by April Corbin Girnus, Nevada Current May 21, 2024 A coalition of business organizations are behind an attack mailer attempting to tie a progressive state Assembly candidate to former President Donald Trump, whom the groups supported in 2020. A mailer recently received by voters in Nevada State Assembly District 10 in Las Vegas claims that Democratic candidate Valerie Thomason and Trump “both hid campaign cash to influence an election” and are “both facing accusations of misleading Nevada voters.” “Can we trust Donald Trump or Valerie Thomason?” it asks. Thomason is one of three Democrats running in the reliably blue district, which spans across the central part of the Las Vegas Valley.

As the gentle reader is aware, Monday was Memorial Day. For most of us, it's a day to remember and honor the soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice in the defense of our country. But for Republicans, it was just a day to cosplay being patriotic before going back to threatening democracy and worshiping their orange traitor-in-chief.

Nothing like using a column by Nooners heaping praise on a book published back in 1900 as an excuse for some hippie punching on the topic of patriotism by the hacks on Fox on Memorial Day. I wish I was kidding, but that was one of the discussions on this Monday's Outnumbered. Noonan's op-ed, which was published last Thursday was titled "Teach Your Children to Love America," with the subtitle, "For Memorial Day, I’m taking inspiration from the New York schools’ 1900 ‘Manual of Patriotism.’" Here's how Noonan described the book in her article: "I’ve spent the past few days reading an old book, one that couldn’t possibly be published today because it’s so full of respect for America." Yes, I'm so sure that "respect" is the only reason it wouldn't be published now Peggers. Kayleigh McEnany started things off reading from a portion of Noonan's column: Parents, teach your children to love America, either as an extension of your own love or as a simple kindness to them. We live in an age—I’ll say this part quickly as we all know it—in which children are instructed in 100 different ways through 100 different portals that America is and always was a dark and scheming place, that its history is the history of pushing people around, often in an amoral quest for wealth but also because we aren’t very nice.

My favorite "Thanks, Biden" blame game from Republicans used to be inflation. That's right, according to the right, Sleepy Joe, who they say has dementia, is responsible for global inflation. That sneaky POTUS! Well, that was then. And now my favorite 'blame it on Joe Biden' rant goes to Newsmax's Chris Plante, who claims that Biden is "very much in decline in every imaginable way," and because the President's favorite ice cream is chocolate chip, it's his fault that it's not one of the top five ice creams being sold, Media Matters reports. "(President) Joseph Robinette Biden, much like his favorite flavor of ice cream, is very much in decline - very much in decline in every imaginable way," Plante said.

Robert De Niro shouted down a Trump supporter who unconscionably called the Capitol police liars, after they defended against treasonous Trump supporters who tried to overthrow the federal government on January 6th. De Niro's speech was accurate and powerful, and when the award-winning actor turned back to thank the two Capitol officers who defended the US Constitution against insurrectionists, a MAGAt jumped in. "They lied under oath," either a right-wing reporter or Trump supporter yelled at De Niro. "They lied under oath," De Niro said sarcastically.