The President of the United States Shares Thoughts…

Andrew Donaldson

Born and raised in West Virginia, Andrew has been the Managing Editor of Ordinary Times since 2018, is a widely published opinion writer, and appears in media, radio, and occasionally as a talking head on TV. He can usually be found misspelling/misusing words on Twitter@four4thefire. Andrew is the host of Heard Tell podcast. Subscribe to Andrew'sHeard Tell Substack for free here:

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21 Responses

  1. Damon says:

    Sitting on the shore of the Rubicon……watching……Report

  2. Chip Daniels says:

    The real story here is the dog that isn’t barking.
    Namely, the entire Republican Party which is watching this deranged lunatic calling for the overthrow of a legitimately elected President and the imposition of a dictator.

    And they are refusing to condemn it, silently willing to go along with the effort.

    The Republican Party can no longer be trusted to be in power, anywhere.Report

    • Philip H in reply to Chip Daniels says:

      Some state and county officials are pushing back. notably in Georgia. So it’s not the Entire Party.

      But I agree – complicity with sedition generally means you don’t get to hold power in a democracy. One hopes Democrats figure out how to use this against Republicans in 2022.Report

    • Dark Matter in reply to Chip Daniels says:

      The dog that isn’t barking is the lack of support he’s getting.

      No new laws are being passed, or even proposed, that would help him. No money is being given to him to do this.

      He is largely being ignored. Congress doesn’t have the ability to shut him up; And we shouldn’t WANT Congress (much less the GOP) to have the ability to shut people up.

      The GOP will let the clock tick, and in January they’ll be rid of him, just like the rest of us.

      And the moment he loses the one ring he’ll never be trusted with it again.Report

      • He’ll be the early favorite for the 2024 nomination, for the same reason almost no Republicans dare criticize him in public, or even mention that he lost: his base still loves him.Report

        • Dark Matter in reply to Mike Schilling says:

          He’ll be the early favorite for the 2024 nomination

          Think about how much work HRC needed to put in to pull off that trick.

          Trump isn’t willing or able to do the same, and he’s too old.Report

      • Philip H in reply to Dark Matter says:

        The dog that isn’t barking is the lack of support he’s getting.

        More like fear of the party base, who are already screaming about sitting out the Georgia Senatorial runoff because Republicans didn’t ensure his win.

        No money is being given to him to do this.

        He has raised $495 Million since Mid October, most of it for “stopping the steal.” It may not be RNC money but he’s getting flush none the less.

        He is largely being ignored. Congress doesn’t have the ability to shut him up; And we shouldn’t WANT Congress (much less the GOP) to have the ability to shut people up.

        You clearly misunderstand the ask: we know full well he won’t shut up, now or after 21 January. Shutting him up isn’t the point. Calling a spade a spade is the point. Words indeed matter in democracies, and his words are designed to destroy the system in a vain hope of retaining both power and freedom from prosecution. The Party of “the rule of law” and “states rights” and “individual responsibility” is mostly silent in defense of this concepts when applied to the President.

        Failure to speak out now, and do so forcefully and repeatedly really does set them up to have him as a nominee in 2024. Hell the man declared a reelection campaign for the just completed election what – a month after taking office? He brings people to vote, and while they are clearly angry at Republicans right now, the Party has no one with his charisma to take his place.Report

        • Dark Matter in reply to Philip H says:

          He has raised $495 Million since Mid October, most of it for “stopping the steal.” It may not be RNC money but he’s getting flush none the less.

          This is seriously moving the goal posts. The RNC is giving him nothing, how do you suggest we take and/or prevent normal people from giving him money? Should this be an ability the RNC has? Congress?

          Calling a spade a spade is the point… Failure to speak out now, and do so forcefully and repeatedly really does set them up to have him as a nominee in 2024.

          So in other words, the Dems should have stood shoulder to shoulder and said that HRC’s selling of pardons (and her habit of accepting vast amounts of money via her “charity”) made her unfit to run for President?

          Who specifically had that responsibility and what do you suggest should have happened to them when they didn’t? Is Obama at fault for making her SoS?

          As far as I can tell, the establishment is NOT supporting Trump. He’s doing his one-man band thing, his lawyers are generating billable hours, and he’s largely being ignored. There’s NO WAY anyone would make him part of their administration. He has no power base outside of his company, his family, and his base.

          He’s as isolated as is possible given he’s the President and Twitter. When he’s not President he’ll continue to be isolated for obvious reasons.

          I think he can’t survive politically without the Presidency. He might not even be able to survive economically. 4 years will make this obvious.Report

          • Chip Daniels in reply to Dark Matter says:

            Yes, lets reset the goalposts to my original point.

            The Republican voting base loves and supports Donald Trump, and either ignores or embraces all his corruption.Report

            • Philip H in reply to Chip Daniels says:

              This. Even the RNC chair in her recent remarks in Georgia couldn’t move ordinary republicans off the dime of the RNC and Republican politicians are RINO’s because they couldn’t get Trump reelected by whatever means.Report

          • Philip H in reply to Dark Matter says:

            As far as I can tell, the establishment is NOT supporting Trump.

            That’s funny. If they don’t support him why have only one or two senators come out and said Biden won? Why are state Republican officials NOT pushing back publicly on his insults to them when the certify for Biden? Why has not one Republican pushed back on Gen. Flynn’s call for seditious declarations of martial law? The absence of any speech is not a lack of support.

            Reread my comment about Georgia – the failure of Loffler and Perdue to deliver Trump a reelection is now likely to cost them both their Senate seats. And yet they are STILL unwilling to call him out on his continued lies regarding the election. Hell, Bill Barr said he had no evidence that there was election fraud, Trump called him a deep state actor, and not one Republican came to Barr’s defense. Not one.

            He has no power base outside of his company, his family, and his base

            His base is the Republican Party’s base. He has tremendous power inside the Party.

            When he’s not President he’ll continue to be isolated for obvious reasons.

            Funny how an “isolated” guy has so much air time on news outlets and generates so many pixels on places like OT. Call me whacky but that’s not isolated. Not by a long shot. And until he gets convicted of something he won’t be isolated.

            I think he can’t survive politically without the Presidency. He might not even be able to survive economically. 4 years will make this obvious.

            That’s also funny. No one expected him to win in the first place. He bankrupted a casino and managed to get Deutsche Bank to loan him millions. He has raised $207 Million from his supporters since election day. As long as there’s a room to play he will play it, and read it exactly correctly. Its his superpower. he will be fine unless and until the State of New York puts him behind bars.Report

            • Dark Matter in reply to Philip H says:

              Why has not one Republican pushed back on Gen. Flynn’s call for seditious declarations of martial law? The absence of any speech is not a lack of support.

              General? What is this guy’s current gov status again? Pardoned criminal who is now a private citizen? And his “seditious declaration” is a twitter statement?

              How much money is being spent on the “revolution”? How many troops mobilized?

              It’s like you’re trying to treat the gov’s taking of Indiana Jone’s Lost Arc seriously and are glossing over the whole thing is fictional. There is less to this than Obama’s suggestion that his people use guns on his political opponents and that was also just rhetoric.

              The GOP isn’t taking this sort of thing seriously and they’re not virtue signaling to the Left. For that matter, given the lack of people arming up for the revolution and the lack of runs on foodstuffs (probably including you personally), no one is taking this seriously.

              Funny how an “isolated” guy has so much air time on news outlets and generates so many pixels on places like OT.

              That is his big skill, that and spinning people up.

              he will be fine unless and until the State of New York puts him behind bars.

              He’s older than HRC. Time is the fire in which we burn.Report

    • James K in reply to Chip Daniels says:

      Yes, at this point the few Republicans with a functioning sense of decency need to leave a form a new conservative party.Report

      • Brandon Berg in reply to James K says:

        Things don’t really work that way in the US electoral system. Anyway, the real problem is the voters; the parties are just a symptom. Ideally we just admit that the one-person-one-vote system has failed and gate suffrage behind a civic literacy test with real teeth, but the next best thing to do would be to end the primary system and let the party elites nominate candidates for the general election.Report

        • Philip H in reply to Brandon Berg says:

          So lets solve the problem of a semi-informed and irrational electorate by reinstituting poll taxes and civics tests. The old tools of segregation are new again!

          As to primaries – I’d rather we have open primaries and ranked choice voting. But I’m firmly in the “make more voting opportunities and make it as easy as possible camp.”Report

  3. Saul Degraw says:

    https://twitter.com/MarisaKabas/status/1334315220815278080?s=20

    In other news, Giuliani’s star witness in Michigan is a drunk and Lin Wood is so off the wall bonkers that he allegedly physically assaulted at least one of his old law partners. This is a very farcical and tragic assault on democratic institutions and legitimacy. Partially or largely and aided and abetted by malcontents who might not really care if Trump is President or not but decided that they like the shits and giggles of watching everything burn down from the comfort of their sofas and reclining chairs while shitposting with eachother on 4chan. I wonder what their ploughing skills are like when all the comforts go away in societal and economic collapse.Report

  4. Saul Degraw says:

    Why did my comment disappear?Report