Opinion

I have several female friends who have been victims of domestic abuse. Over the past decade, they have confided in me because I’ve been open about my mental health struggles. When you make yourself vulnerable, it often gives others permission to do the same.

It is difficult to hear their stories. That’s one reason it has been personally difficult for me to hear what some of the women involved with Graham Platner have described. One friend once told me, “You will never know what it’s like when someone grabs your throat and you see that look in their eyes.”

The juvenile delinquents who have been put in charge of the White House website and social media have officially gone full Nazi by creating an “Enemies List” of “Leftist Influencers” on WhiteHouse.gov

The list is fairly short for now, but the fact that it exists at all is proof that the Trump-controlled government is continuing to follow a propaganda playbook that was originally written in German in the 1930s. It was then later translated into Russian before finally reaching our shores and becoming a hybrid of their most horrifically successful tactics, with just enough of The Handmaid’s Tale for good measure added in over the last few years.

There is nothing like spending well over a decade of life satiating the Left's unending "id" only to then corner fast and navigate having to talk politics "nicely," a duty one undertakes when doing consulting for candidates that somehow have to retain every Democrat in a district, while also reaching out to that 15-20% that voted for Trump but ah... isn't happy.

There is great news to be had in that the 20% exists, and they've never been unhappier. The bad news is that, like many victims of traumatic abuse, even though they "see" the objective landscape, they've absorbed so much of their abuser's personality that the dynamic is now one more of "identity" than a set of beliefs, more feel than fact, less character than it is a culture.

It is hard to be on left-leaning social media and not hear the panic screams directed at Congressional Democrats for not "doing something" amidst the chaos and corruption bursting forth from the reactor breach within the administration. As for actually stopping or holding up the legislation powering through all three MAGA branches, one can somewhat sympathize with Democratic pols, given how little they can do under our form of government.

But Democrats can and must fire back when holding the floor in oversight, especially during committee hearings going out to screens everywhere. And on that issue, we see signs of life — and none too soon.

I’ve often said that the best way to trigger MAGA is to use its own tactics and words against it, because it’s an incredibly effective way to showcase how bad they are at doing everything, including their internet bullying.

They don’t like to be ridiculed or told they’re racist, xenophobic, homophobic, transphobic, etc. They don’t want to hear any truths about Trump and Jeffrey Epstein. They use projection and immature juvenile name-calling as a replacement for discussing policy, as Trump has no policies other than enriching himself. They ignore all of Trump’s failures, bankruptcies, affairs, and multiple crimes against the United States, all in the name of “owning the Libs.”

I had a great uncle who was notorious for sleeping sitting straight up in his chair. His eyes would glaze over as family conversations swirled around him. Inevitably, his eyes would shut, and whether it was a dream or the shrill sound of his wife’s laugh, his eyes would pop open.

He was always teased about his frequent chair napping, and he always, always denied he was sleeping. “Just resting my eyes,” he would insist. Then he’d “rest his eyes” again a few moments later.

So on Tuesday, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche – a misnomer if ever there was one, as the man is “acting” nothing like an actual Attorney General – admitted defeat in declaring the nearly $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” (better known by sane adults as the “slush fund”) permanently dead. Deceased. Scrapped. Gone. Sayonara.

And then, two days later, like a zombie rising from the grave, Senate Republicans refused to bury it for good.

I started in radio news as a teenage reporter at WITL-AM/FM in Lansing, Michigan, then the number one station in the capital city. I began reporting from the Capitol and City Hall, and was writing and reading the morning newscasts within a year.

The station owner was a hardcore Goldwater Republican, our news director was a liberal but Libertarian-curious Democrat, and I was a long-haired anti-war hippie member of MSU's Students for a Democratic Society.