Pat Smith retweeted
As President Trump said a few weeks ago: "Karl Rove is a LOSER. He's been a loser all his life."
👀
"Karl Rove slammed Vice President JD Vance during the Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly on Monday as a “neo-isolationist” who would “bankrupt our economy and make the world a far more dangerous place by abandoning” Israel.
Rove stated unequivocally that Vance 'should not be president of the United States, nor the Republican nominee.'"
jewishinsider.com/what-we-are-wa…
43
178
972
37,917
I think Trump would give very interesting interviews to just about everyone—after all, he loves talking to reporters and has for half a century—but most interviewers are just trying to score partisan points.
It’s interesting how trump sounds more substantive and reflective than he usually does when someone is pushing back on him and engaging with him seriously
1
0
14
438
Pat Smith retweeted
Where was the urgency from Senate leadership on the SAVE America Act, H.R. 2, or judicial confirmations? There are more than 50 days until the new Senate is sworn in. Leadership elections can wait. Current leadership should use that time to put some wins on the board and show that they are worthy of being entrusted with leadership roles again. Rushing to preserve the status quo is unacceptable, especially after last week’s election results.
41
77
356
14,597
Pat Smith retweeted
Shit, don’t let them take Bryant Haines.
SITUATION DETECTED: Bloomington, Indiana's city council voted unanimously this week to ban any recursively self-improving entity capable of greatly outperforming all humans on all cognitive tasks from inside city limits, citing existential hazards and loss of human control.
4
10
365
28,504
Pat Smith retweeted
“You can’t threaten them with excommunication when you are appointing effective liberal Protestants as their bishops.”
Andrew Cusack is joined by Professor Thomas Pink on this week’s episode of In Conversation With to discuss the truth beneath the SSPX excommunications and what .
Out today, 4pm ET (9pm GMT).
Andrew Cusack is joined by Professor Thomas Pink on this week’s episode of In Conversation With to discuss the truth beneath the SSPX excommunications and what .
Out today, 4pm ET (9pm GMT).
2
23
80
4,870
I would add that the Republicans elect convention delegates: if people don’t like the nominees coming out of the convention, they can run for a delegate spot and try to get candidates they do like at the next convention.
Scrapping Indiana’s convention nominating system would be a big mistake and a betrayal of the grassroots in both parties. At conventions, grassroots activists often get to decide who ends up on the ballot.
Yes, conventions have produced some real duds. They’ve also given us some of our best fighters and a chance to change course when a primary wouldn’t have.
Statewide primaries are prohibitively expensive unless you can fund your own campaign or already hold statewide or federal office. They also open the door to a lot of crossover voting and interference by the other party
1
0
9
431
Pat Smith retweeted
This is completely ridiculous analysis.
Prices were the number one issue for voters in the midterm elections after they spiked because we engaged in a war of choice at the urging of Netanyahu and Israel.
Before the Iran War, the average price for regular gas fell below $3 per gallon in 43 states.
On Election Day, gas averaged $4.11 a gallon nationally, a record high for an Election Day. Diesel hit about $6.28.
Before the Iran War, mortgage rates dropped below 6% for the first time since 2022.
This week, the average 30-year mortgage rate stands at 7.18%.
Before the Iran War, private sector workers’ real wages grew 1.3% in just one year.
Now, real wages are down 0.7% over the past year.
So before the war started... inflation was cooling, wages were growing, and the economy was on a great trajectory.
Don’t blame tariffs for the consequences of another failed Middle Eastern intervention.
Prices were the number one issue for voters in the midterm elections after they spiked because we engaged in a war of choice at the urging of Netanyahu and Israel.
Before the Iran War, the average price for regular gas fell below $3 per gallon in 43 states.
On Election Day, gas averaged $4.11 a gallon nationally, a record high for an Election Day. Diesel hit about $6.28.
Before the Iran War, mortgage rates dropped below 6% for the first time since 2022.
This week, the average 30-year mortgage rate stands at 7.18%.
Before the Iran War, private sector workers’ real wages grew 1.3% in just one year.
Now, real wages are down 0.7% over the past year.
So before the war started... inflation was cooling, wages were growing, and the economy was on a great trajectory.
Don’t blame tariffs for the consequences of another failed Middle Eastern intervention.
Not a single exit poll is showing that Iran and Israel is even a top four concern for voters. It’s completely tone deaf.
The top concern is jobs. It is the economy. It is the cost of living. It is tariffs.
@JesseBWatters
91
74
477
19,571
Pat Smith retweeted
The very last people in the universe who I want to hear speak ON ANYTHING -- from election analysis to how to get out ASAP from Iran -- are the people who cheerled the country into the war and delivered the resultant electoral catastrophe for the GOP. They're all: "It's not our fault! Real neoconservatism has never been tried! We just needed to war harder and now we need to fix things by ramping up the war now! You're disloyal if you say true things about the war!" They're wrong. They've done enough damage. They need to stop being listened to and platformed in any way, shape, or form.
493
528
3,917
354,723
Pat Smith retweeted
Donald Trump Jr: “Whether you think it was the right decision or not, the Iran war is largely what shifted voter sentiment and caused this. It jacked up the price of gas and it changed their minds. We also campaigned on not getting into these things.”
792
140
1,045
414,274
Pat Smith retweeted
Had coffee with a right-leaning friend who works as a general contractor. He said his daily life was mostly the same between the last two years of the Biden term and the first two years of the Trump term, with one exception: it now costs $230 to fill his truck with diesel.
781
383
7,462
913,146
"My policies have caused not one, but two, administration-crippling electoral setbacks over the last twenty years. I should be the gatekeeper for the GOP!"
If @JDVance cannot bring himself to say that Trump made the right decision to disarm Iran, he has no business seeking the GOP nomination to succeed him. If Vance can’t endorse Trump’s national security policy, Trump should not endorse him.
wapo.st/4iYKW4q
1
6
44
810
Yeah, but the neocons can't retake the GOP if they don't try to convince people not to believe their lying eyes and blame the tariffs for the catastrophe.
Lots of subjectivity and vibes in “was it tariffs or was it Iran war” debate. But objectively, data shows a much bigger impact from Iran war on prices increases 2026 and it’s not that close. It was about cost of living, and Iran was the main driver of that.
1
1
13
395
Pat Smith retweeted
Here's the reason I don't but the "tariffs killed us" line. Yeah, Trump dropped from 47 to 40 on approval after Liberation day and stabilized there. Tariffs were at 37 percent approval.
In his first term, Trump's tax cuts started at 29 percent approval, and his popularity stayed stable at 40. 40 is the baseline of Trump/Republican approval rating in boom times, and in inflation. The tax cuts never went above water in Pew. So yeah, he might have gotten a thermostatic reaction this year based on economic policies, just as he did in 2018. When Trump fell after Liberation Day he fell to the exact same level he had been at when he was supposedly enacting True Reaganism (plus some tariffs) in his first term.
Trump's second term tax cuts are also underwater. Politico had them at 35 percent in October. The difference between 2018 and 2026 is that on top of this, Trump added a Middle East war that immediately raised gas prices and grocery prices without defending the war to the American people or getting their buy in. That's how you go from a 2018 rebuke to a Watergate level disaster.
Given what is reported in the Times last night about the internal polling showing the electoral disaster exactly tracking with hostilities, and the internal polling showing that MAGA 2024 voters who didn't show up in 2026 cited the war first, I can't believe we are having this debate at all anymore.
But we have to go through this ridiculous "Iran war has never really been tried." "Do the incredibly unpopular thing harder." and "We were stabbed in the back by the communist wreckers" b.s.
In his first term, Trump's tax cuts started at 29 percent approval, and his popularity stayed stable at 40. 40 is the baseline of Trump/Republican approval rating in boom times, and in inflation. The tax cuts never went above water in Pew. So yeah, he might have gotten a thermostatic reaction this year based on economic policies, just as he did in 2018. When Trump fell after Liberation Day he fell to the exact same level he had been at when he was supposedly enacting True Reaganism (plus some tariffs) in his first term.
Trump's second term tax cuts are also underwater. Politico had them at 35 percent in October. The difference between 2018 and 2026 is that on top of this, Trump added a Middle East war that immediately raised gas prices and grocery prices without defending the war to the American people or getting their buy in. That's how you go from a 2018 rebuke to a Watergate level disaster.
Given what is reported in the Times last night about the internal polling showing the electoral disaster exactly tracking with hostilities, and the internal polling showing that MAGA 2024 voters who didn't show up in 2026 cited the war first, I can't believe we are having this debate at all anymore.
But we have to go through this ridiculous "Iran war has never really been tried." "Do the incredibly unpopular thing harder." and "We were stabbed in the back by the communist wreckers" b.s.
I don’t think anyone reasonably objective is trying to defend the war per se. Obviously it was a huge contributor to affordability (an extra dollar per gallon of gas, plus diesel), and people felt like another Middle East war was a campaign promise broken.
I guess the question I have is why you can’t see the same thing on the tariffs.
It’s both. The Iran war killed us on fuel. The tariffs killed us on commodities and consumer goods. They are the parents, together, of the unaffordability child.
And the exit polling is unambiguous on tariffs. Two thirds of voters say tariffs have made both the country and their local community less affordable. That’s the clearest policy opinion in the exit polling.
9
16
111
13,503
