Originally published at: A Mandate From Above - TPM – Talking Points Memo
Blessed By A Bullet? Hello, it’s the weekend. This is The Weekender 
Does almost getting killed make you a leader? That’s what Tucker Carlson suggested on Thursday night at the RNC, where he distilled what many other speakers were suggesting into a simple formula: Trump survived his assassination attempt thanks to “divine intervention,” and that, in…
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Dawn breaks on another day of Absolutists crawling over the TPM forums telling everyone to shut up! Perhaps they were up too late last night telling everyone to shut up and will be sleeping in this morning.
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Still a little surprised he kept his pillow on his ear the entire time. No big reveal.
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I shut down and shut up a while ago. When it’s too much to understand, I go walk the dog out along the irrigation ditches in the cool of the morning. Which is going to happen now. Hang in there and keep hammering at the truth. 
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Does almost getting killed make you a leader? In a word, NO.
On a different note, what are the odds, Trump will wear his bandage until the election.
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Let’s ask Mike Pence.
on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher on Friday night, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg tore into Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio).
Buttigieg began the segment by attempting to explain why wealthy Silicon Valley tech executives (Vance previously worked in Silicon Valley) are now lining up behind the Republican ticket. The former South Bend, Indiana mayor said California’s tech CEOs are typically believed “to care about climate, supposed to be pro-science and rational and libertarians,” and that “normally libertarians don’t like authoritarians.” But he said Americans have “made it way too complicated” and the the true explanation is “super simple.”
“These are very rich men who have decided to back the Republican Party, that tends to do good things for very rich men,” Buttigieg said to loud applause. "That’s kind of what you’re getting with JD [Vance], right?
He then noted that Vance was a lot like his home state’s former governor, Mike Pence — not just in that he became Trump’s running mate, but because both men appeared to compromise their core values in exchange for power.
“I watched [Pence] start out as an evangelical Christian who cared about rectitude and family values, and then get on board with a guy who was mixed up with a porn star, and make excuses for him,” Buttigieg said. “He got four glorious years, I guess, as vice president of the United States. And it ended on the West front of the U.S. Capitol with Trump supporters proposing that he be hanged for using the one shred of integrity he still had to stand up to an attempt to overthrow the government.”
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geez, happy morning to you, too.
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Sadly Rep Sheila Jackson has passed away from pancreatic cancer. I fear the winger that abbot will thrust upon Houston.
ETA: I have been reminded that there will be a special election.
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Not abbot’s choice. There will have to be a vote.
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Unfortunately, fraught times fray nerves and relationships. I have been trying to post my thoughts on the current “Dems is disarray” crisis and not engage with those who, apparently, vehemently disagree with me. I try to remember we all have a right to share our views. I just wish we could all dial down the insults as we are all here because we love the country, are concerned about its continued existence.
Take care one and all. Let’s try to make it through this weekend.
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Up at 5:00 AM
Saw this stupidity on cnn just now
Daydreams of Harris making a more active and vigorous case against Donald Trump are taking root
Fucking DAYDREAMS??
Goddamn
As I said weenie democrats WANT to lose this all important life or death election.
Daydreams.
Playing softball and being nice with the likes of an evil CRIMINAL will lose every goddamned time. I’m an old fart and seen a lotta weird shit in my days but never have I seen an easier in theory election. A decent empathic hard working guy with no criminal past is up against a fucking convicted CRIMINAL with three more trials to go. GOOD FUCKING GOD!!! How much more ammo to the democrats need? And what is theis game plan for combating a convicted criminal?
Daydreams.
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Probably because there is basically nothing to see and TCF wants to perpetuate his martyr status. Very childish.
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Her death requires a special election. Governors are not empowered to appoint a replacement. That only happens with Senators.
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The only path I can see out of this mess, and it’s not guaranteed, Is for Joe Biden to resign the Presidency, and let Kamala Harris run as the incumbent.
Joe sacrificed his health by coming out of retirement to beat this MF. If, as it appears, his acuity has declined in the past few months, then he may no longer be up to the job of being the leader of the free world. There is no shame in admitting he no longer has the vigor to do the job. He will still go down as one of the best Presidents of my lifetime.
Allowing Kamala to run as the incumbent, gives her the advantage of the bully pulpit, and may give her the advantage of some of the extreme powers the Supes have levied on the Presidency. I say, let an experienced prosecutor take over the reins of power, and let’s see if she can’t put those powers to good use.
[Ed: Kamala Harris is also the only Democrat, other than Joe, to be serving as elected. No one else has that legitimacy.]
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Everybody currently has the right to their own point of view. I have stated mine plainly. My post up thread contains no critique of anyone else. Civility is a very useful tool when speaking to someone with a different viewpoint
Take care as well
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Yeah. I remembered that after posting
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About that bullet injury to Trump, Dr. Vin Gupta’s opinion.
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I knew that asshole Abbott was shipping busloads of immigrants to northern Blue cities, but I had no idea how much it had scaled up. The article below has a dynamic (scrolling-activated) infographic that shows the city targets and the increase over time. Un-paywalled link.
(The TPM software isn’t posting the preview link? I’m getting an error message “returned error code of 403,” but the link should still work)
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“It sounds crazy, but this is very literally what Carlson and others were saying.” A minor, and I think friendly, edit: It sounds crazy, and it is crazy, deeply, wildly crazy, but" etc.
MTG: “The flag looked like an angel.” Off-the-charts looney tunes. The cult is turning inward on itself and losing track of how they look and sound to non-cultists.
Meanwhile the Democratic party is too obsessed with its own circular firing squad to notice how frightening and repellent to normal people MAGA is becoming.
Don’t worry baby God’ll think of something.
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Thanks for reporting this. I cannot watch Maher anymore – sanctimonious bitch that he is. And I’ve always thought very highly of Pete Buttigieg. He is direct, but not cruel. And remains an honest, reliable source of facts in a plain and persuasive way. I wondered what he had to say about Biden stepping down. I found this interview he had on MSNBC. And coincidently got this report by Brian Taylor Cohen. He’s a new name to me, and he is worth listening to, just as Pete is.
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