Originally published at: Finding God in a Cracker Barrel - TPM – Talking Points Memo
Hello it’s the weekend. This is The Weekender 
One of the major features of the modern MAGA movement — along with blind loyalty to President Trump and unbridled glee at the prospect of crackdowns led by masked federal troops — is constantly feeling aggrieved and angry about change. Targets of this ire have included…
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Is it possible they may run out of hare-brained diversions to deflect attention from their crimes against humanity?
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Here’s hoping that Ghislaine Maxwell’s toadying interview inflames the base and sets off a firestorm. If it’s incendiary enough - which is to say that the lying is obvious even to the MAGAts) - maybe she will also have to eat crow and find herself back in detention commensurate with the charges she was convicted on.
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Not saying it’s a bad idea, but it will also put pressure on Trump 2.0 to re-ignite its simmering multinational tariff warfare to ‘seem’ to be filling the revenue gap.
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Well y’all can laugh now, but wait until the next Trump Executive Order mandates “Intel inside” for every new government and school computer purchase.
FWIW I used to be an Intel fan, back in the day when Intel made the best CPUs for gaming computers. Not so much these days. They lost their mojo, and this latest move is just going to drag out the death spiral.
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Let’s face it. Trump wants to keep his name from surfacing in re Epstein’s and Maxwell’s crimes and will do whatever it takes, including pardoning her so long as she lies for him. Which she’s clearly doing.
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It is an almost rigid rule of politics that far-right parties cannot govern. Obviously, they want power and they can get backers, often among the rich, but when it comes to doing the national business of making the country functional, nada. We’ve seen this in Poland, Japan, the UK, and many others. Even when the far-right is allowed into the government as in Finland, the differences cause things to fall apart, because governing isn’t really a thing for the far right.
Trump 2.0 is a far-right dream. Project 2025 is getting implemented, institutions dismantled, and voting, well kind of like in Russia. At least we’re spared the suspense of what party will win.
Americans broadly appreciate functional government. This is reflected in the ineluctable slide in Trump’s approval, which is now lower than in his first term at this point. Donald Trump’s approval rating | The Economist
At what point does the country hit bottom, however? And how fast does the US recover from the damage of this dark time? Do we first have to unplug from digital delusion or revisit fairness and what the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness entails? And how long will the loss of trust with our former allies and partners take to rebuild?
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Riley Quinn from the Trash Future podcast has summed up the contemporary conservative movement as nothing more than “reacting to marketing campaigns”. Here we have a literal example of exactly that. In this case it’s a distraction from the failed policies and corruption of the administration, the sense of entitlement that conservatives should 100% control popular culture, and paranoia about any change, ever. There will always be another outrage, as evidenced by the continued publication of Murdoch rags like The Daily Mail.
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Guess who isn’t following the Federal Records Act. Free gifted link:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/22/us/politics/homeland-security-foia-text-messages.html?unlocked_article_code=1.gU8.Ynt1.jRD-dE4OSHj0&smid=url-share
> Homeland Security Dept. Says It Hasn’t Kept Text Message Data Since April
The agency’s response to public records requests indicated potential violations of federal records laws, experts said.
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Yes. Now we’re getting somewhere, Governor Newsom. Start pointing out the “small” government that Trump has now imposed. All those fiscal conservatives that had to hold their nose but managed to vote for him. Start screaming “socialism” every single day.
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Pardoning Maxwell may be the fat idiot’s Waterloo. He is propping her up as the sole source for an alternative news version of Epstein’s beyond-heinous crimes, and his own adjacency to them. Only the left tail of the bell curve is going to believe her, and the blowback is going to put pressure on his supporters in congress.
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Donald will consult with the fairies and make bad decisions for Intel, backed up by his personal Dept. of Just Us. He thinks he owns 10 percent of Intel stock now, so he will proceed with his vast business experience to ruin Intel. But, yes, he will sell a lot of merchandise along the way.
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Personally, I really like and appreciate what Newsom is doing. Before he started satirizing Trump so aggressively, it seemed to me Democrats were flat-footed and somewhat directionless in figuring out how to win the rhetorical war - which is crucial in winning elections. And while this approach isn’t for every Democrat in every district, it does seem to have broken through the MSM’s usual approach of ignoring our message. I think Newsom, unlike MarkWayne, has actually stepped into the breach and laid down cover fire so that other Dems can also be bolder and figure out what works for them in their particular districts and states.
But not only is Newsom talking, he’s also walking by fighting the gerrymandering fight hard to counteract Republicans. I don’t think Dems have ever responded so fiercely before to an attack on their constituencies. While he may or may not be my preferred candidate in 2028, this is what I’ve been looking for and I give him a lot of credit for doing this. I think it’s going very well for him, but it was a risk that he took. It could have just as easily gone wrong for him.
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Great. Let’s see more like this … Pritzker could do it. He’s in no danger of Illinois turning purple.
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I want to know how he plans to transfer ownership of that 10% of Intel to himself at the end of his term. Like the Qatar glitter-jet.
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I agree and sure hope we’re right.
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Simple. The plan is to put the stock certificates in a Bankers Box and move them to Mar-a-Lardo when he leaves the White House.
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