Republican Election Interference and Dirty Tricks Are A Feature, Not A Bug

There's a lot of angst out on the internet today about saving Republicans from themselves, because once again, we know that their choice of leadership has failed.

But treason and failed leadership isn't a bug -- it's a feature with Republican presidents. 

How many voters actually know that Richard Nixon fired special prosecutors appointed to investigate his dirty election tricks, among them breaking into Democratic National Headquarters to find blackmailable information on people running for public office, especially the presidency?

How many voters know that Richard Nixon sent his "people" to Vietnam to delay the end of the Vietnam War so that Humphrey would lose the 1968 election? Nixon wasn't even a Senator; he was an ex-Vice President. This was treason against the United States to win an election.

How many voters remember Iran-Contra? The Reagan administration sold arms to Iran (behind Congress's back) and transferred the money from those sales to the Contras in Nicaragua (directly contradicting the will of Congress).

How many voters know that the Reagan people negotiated with Iran behind the sitting president's back to delay the release of AMERICAN HOSTAGES until he could win the 1980 election? This was treason against the United States to win an election.

How many voters know or remember that the Bush supporters in New York forged signatures to get Dubya on the primary ballot?  

Do voters remember that Dubya's campaign pushed the smear that John McCain had an illegitimate Black child, when he had actually adopted a baby from Bangladesh?  

Do voters remember where the term Swiftboating comes from?  

Russia interfered in the 2016 election to elect Donald Trump. You know how I know that? Because Putin said so, out loud, in Helsinki in 2018.

What's changed with Trump is not Republicans who, like nauseous dogs, will return to their vomit every four years with no sense of what just happened or what happened fifty years ago.  

What's changed is that we Democrats no longer follow the fantasy of fairness.  As my husband said on The Bob Cesca Show: 

UnitedHealth CEO Tells Congress To Do Something Called 'Expanding ACA'

I came across this in "The Hill" (ugh) this morning.  

UnitedHealth promises to return ObamaCare profits to customers

And the CEO of UnitedHealth is going to testify before a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee sometime today, which will likely be overshadowed by another hearing, but still.  

Three things jump out at me: 

1.  It's the law under Obamacare that insurers have to refund you if they do not spend 80% 
of your premium on healthcare.  Fuck you very much for bragging to Congress that you're

going to obey that law, though under this Republican Congress "laws" sure do seem to 

be optional, see "releasing the Epstein Files." 

2.  The CEO is expected to tell Congress his ideas on how to reduce costs.  
One idea he has is "expanding eligibility for the lowest cost plans." 

3.  "He will also emphasize the price of hospital visits, specialty services such as diagnostic
testing, and prescription drugs as major factors that are driving premiums higher, 
according to his prepared remarks."  

This is a giant loophole in the ACA, which promises to cover annual physicals,
but allows lab work to be subject to the deductible, which, in more than one ACA plan, 
means any lab work you have done that's under six to twelve thousand dollars comes out
of your pocket, depending.  

And I don't know about you, but when I see my primary care physician for 
a physical, the main thing my doctor does is read off the results of the bloodwork.  
Period.  Calling diagnostic testing a "specialty service" is nonsense; it's the primary in primary
care, the number one reason anyone goes to the doctor.  

Fox News and the Art of Scandalword Brainwashing

There's a peculiar rhythm to Fox News outrage, and it sounds like this: Ben-ghaz-i. So-lynd-ra. Bu-ris-ma. Three exotic-sounding syllables, endlessly repeated, until they become less like words and more like incantations. These aren't just news stories—they're linguistic weapons in a war against Democrats. 

If Dems had anything remotely like Fox News there would just be a constant ticker like how Trump just recites one-word shorthand for a bunch of “scandals“ (server! Uranium One! Spygate! Benghazi! Paula Jones! Whitewater! Foster! DNC Rigging! Afghan withdrawal! Fast & Furious! Border Crisis! Tarmac!)

— ❀°。Der Siebenschläfer *.ﾟ✿ ⋆ (@sababausa.bsky.social) December 17, 2025 at 12:27 AM

The formula is remarkably consistent. Take a complex policy issue or tragedy, reduce it to a two or three-syllable word that a normie does not use in everyday conversation, then repeat it until the word itself triggers a Pavlovian response. 

The content barely matters anymore. Hannity dedicated hundreds of segments to Benghazi between 2012 and 2016, far outlasting any genuine news value the story possessed. The word became a stand-in for an entire worldview: Democrats are corrupt, Democrats are incompetent, Democrats will get you killed.  Hillary's fault. 

The three-syllable brainwashing technique transforms legitimate policy debates into tribal markers, facts into feelings, and complexity into certainty. 

Once the word is programmed, the thinking stops. And that's exactly the point. 

"Solyndra" worked the same way. A failed solar company that received a government loan became shorthand for everything supposedly wrong with Obama's energy policy. Never mind that loan guarantee programs expect some failures, or that the overall portfolio performed well and brought in a profit for the American taxpayer. So-lynd-ra became a three-syllable eye roll, a knowing nod between host and viewer that said "see? We told you." 

Burisma is perhaps the purest example. How many Fox viewers could accurately explain what Burisma Holdings actually did, or what specifically Hunter Biden's role entailed? It doesn't matter. Bu-ris-ma meant "Biden corruption." The details are irrelevant; the brainwashing word does the work. 

Sometimes the Fox News brainwashers forget the rules, and it shows.  "Auto Pen"—the claim that Biden used an autopen for official documents—never gained traction despite Fox's attempts to scandalize it. "Auto[matic]" and "pen" are words used in everyday conversation.  It lacks the exotic foreignness of "Benghazi, Burisma, and Solyndra."   

But then came "Ep-stein-Files."  

Suddenly, the right-wing outrage machine found itself in an unexpected predicament: they'd caught the car. Here was a perfect three-syllable scandal with massive public interest and an entire QAnon cult behind it. The problem? Epstein's associations crossed party lines, AHEM, and the deeper anyone digs, the more necessary it is to redact DONALD TRUMP'S NAME. 

Until I am shown different I am going to use MAGA math and say that anything redacted is nasty shit about Trump that's how they made this playing field not me.

— Jerry Toupal (@mosmos69.bsky.social) January 2, 2026 at 9:17 AM

You can't use "Epstein Files" as shorthand for "Democrats bad" when the web of connections leads right to Dear Leader himself.  But that right-wing outrage machine did it.  They convinced the pig people that there was a scandal to follow and decry.    

And then they told those same people to forget about it.   

 The usual playbook—reduce, repeat, outrage—had to be put back in the bottle.  Because Trump is all over the Epstein Files.  And the brainwashing that made the Epstein Files matter, just as Burisma, Solyndra, and Benghazi "mattered,"  can't be turned off so easily.  And some of these brainwashed zealots don't care at all about consequences.  

My God people! The Epstein file has become some golden calf for idiots. What has been released is damning but the apocalypse cult of maga doesn't care. There is nothing in that file that will magically make maga go away. WWIII is the end goal for many Christian nationalist.

— Mrs. Fibuli (@mirandaquim.bsky.social) January 20, 2026 at 7:55 AM

My Dad Passed Away This Morning

 

With my dad in 1969

Ian Christopher Mayow Short passed away this morning at the age of 89.
He was born in Seaford, Sussex, England, in 1936 to Mayow Earl deCoucey Short and Margaret Helen (Campbell) Short.

Ian was a multimedia artist, printmaker, and educator known for his work in photography, printmaking, and for integrating art with education.  He was a co-founder of the Artists Image Resource (AIR) in Pittsburgh and taught for many years at Kent State University in Ohio and Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, where he was chairman of the Art Department from 1993-96.

Ian grew up in River Forest, Illinois. And was educated at Illinois Wesleyan University (1958).  He received his MFA from the University of Illinois, Urbana, in 1961. 

Ian leaves behind three daughters, Frances, Marion, and Helen, and five grandchildren.  All of us loved him like crazy. 

Here I am telling a funny story about my dad in 2008.  

   

After I posted this video, Dad (who was 72 at the time) left me a Skype voicemail and said it's not a laserjet, it's an inkjet printer, and I should be sure to plug some computer thingy called "Adobe Photoshop."  So I did.  :) 

My sisters and I agree that if there's a heaven, he's up there setting up his studio.  He's also lighting up a cigarette and drinking a Manhattan.  Probably playing darts and bragging about his grandkids.  He'll go say hi to mom after he's had a drink. 

 My family is tremendously grateful to Ian's hospice care workers, and also fuck cancer. 

PS You can see some of Dad's artwork here and here.  

The Trump Administration: A Zero On Rotten Tomatoes

"Trump Administration: The Movie" aspires to answer the question: What would happen if...

...a greedy, white-nationalist, sex-creep version of Dumbledore, 

....but with frontal dementia and mini-strokes, 

...found himself riding an All Terrain Armored Transport to Venezuela 

...in a desperate (yet possibly successful) attempt to escape the judgment of the Epstein Ring?  

 

The answer is: you don't care. Because by the time you make it to the end of this gaping sore of unending corruption, you'll begrudge George Lucas and J.K. Rowling and JRR Tolkien just for conceiving of worlds that could be so poorly re-imagined by the douches at Fox News and Newsmax.  (Also, CBS.)   And you won't thank the narrators, Jesse Watters, Stephen Miller, Laura Ingraham, and the rest of the prostitutes in this hellscape, for pouring their weak sauce over the whole shit sandwich.

You'll have run out of the theater before the final credits, so here's the fifty-cent tour:  

In a bizarre and failed attempt to bring in "comedy" revenue, Marco Rubio is cast as "the smart one."  And all the female leads look exactly the same. 

This is one mess of a story that really begs the question: why film it? Why watch it? Why? Stay away . . . and if you still decide to buy the ticket because, hey, freedom of expression and it's your country, too?  Fuck you, Bozo, your Fandango points go to Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Eli Lilly, and Meta!  

Fair warning, this movie is definitely not for kids. Unless you let your kids listen to you read explicit stories about pedophiles and enjoy extreme close-ups of lips damaged by gender-affirming injections. In which case, this is the movie for you . . . sicko!

h/t my archives

Could The New Yorker please put its entire letters section at the Thanksgiving table with Leslie Jones?

 

Returning to old skool blogging with as little fanfare as possible...

The holiday mail malaise meant that I received a copy of The New Yorker, one per day, every day last week.  

And one particular Letters Section ("The Mail," December 15, 2025) has me asking, 'Were the interns in charge of choosing these?'

______

Dylan M. of Brooklyn notes that yes, it's terrible that Trump has demolished Roosevelt's East Wing...

BUT...

The "original structure was built in part by enslaved people." 

SO...

______

Karin S-R of Santa Rosa, CA writes as "a feminist, a therapist, and a mother of twin teen-age boys" and notes that yes, there may be a "so-called crisis facing men..." 

BUT...

"if feminism does not expand its concern to include the well-being of men..."

"feminism cannot depend on the erasure of male identity." [?]

"if [emphasis mine] WE don't help to articulate new, healthier visions of masculinity..." 

[Karin, that sounds like more uncompensated work AND your boys are lucky to have you for a mom.] 

______

George of San Leandro, CA, notes that "nowadays, commentators frequently introduce Trump by describing him as a 'felon' or a 'convicted criminal.'"  

BUT...

"[T]here are about twenty-four million people who have been convicted of felony offenses. Not all of their convictions were the result of fair processes."

[You just KNOW where George is going with this...]

"Words like 'felon' and 'convict' are often used, as in reference to Trump, to signal that someone has inherently low moral worth.  This can contribute to the punishing of people who have already been subject to injustices..."

______

Could The New Yorker please put its entire letters section at the Thanksgiving table with Leslie Jones?

It's the Corruption, Stupid

 

'Shopped by me with assist from Bing AI. Click for larger. 

Affirmations for the Serious Knitter

 

As read on my knitting podcast for this week (at the 13:48 mark).

AFFIRMATIONS FOR THE SERIOUS KNITTER. 

1. No housework until I have knit for fifteen minutes. 

2.  I want to knit.  Worrying, complaining, computerizing, rushing, shopping, people-pleasing, (fill in the blank) is NOT knitting.

3.  "I should do this, I should do that."  I will stop "should-ing" all over myself, cast on, and knit. 

4.  I am an artist. (Repeat three thousand times daily, preferably while knitting.)

5.  As an artist, I won a palette of textures and colors, also known as a stash.  No one ever told Van Gogh he had too many colors of paint. I appreciate, treasure, deserve, and utilize every skein of yarn I own, even if it is just for inspiration. 

6.  In addition, I show gratitude for my abundance of yarn by finding another knitter to knit the yarn I know I will never use. 

7.  I am proud of my creativity. (see number 4) 

8.  My ability to create and complete knitting projects is a great gift.  I show my gratitude for this gift by completing projects, wearing them, and saying to all admirers, "I knit it myself!" And when I do, the angels rejoice, and knit with me. 

BingAI can't get knitting needles right yet.

9.  I want to knit sweaters (socks, baby things, afghans etc.) and I remind myself regularly how important knitting is to me.

10.  I'm gonna knit it, I'm gonna finish it, I'm gonna wear it -- with a smile! 

Where to find the podcasts

via GIPHY

I am no longer posting the podcasts here. 

Our podcast host, Buzzsprout, has created a website for us that is just lovely and does the job. Feel free to bookmark it! https://proleft.buzzsprout.com 

Or you can Chromecast our podcasts via our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ProfessionalLeft 

You can watch my knitting podcasts on my YouTube Podcast Channel. 

Thanks!

Driftglass has a cold.

When Did Trump Decide to Become Orange?

And here is my latest knitting podcast as well!