Words of Wisdom -- from Dark Brandon to Ford v Trudeau to Taylor Swift to Wikipedia's finest moment

Some interesting columns this week 

First, there was this controversy:

Isn't this why Trump voters like him though https://t.co/c0eXBjuKdF

— Drew McKevitt (on a hiatus, mostly) (@drewmckevitt) February 2, 2024

In Everyone is Entitled to My Opinion, Jeff Tiedrich writes Donald Trump’s a sick fuck, this I know — because Joe Biden tells me so hey Joe — tell us how you really feel:

we already know that Dark Brandon loves him some f-bombs...

...answer me this, you defenders of Dear Leader: where is the lie?

of course Trump’s a sick fuck. who else would look at a department store dressing room and think gosh, what a great place to rape someone.

of course he’s a fucking asshole. just look at … his entire fucking life.

but Donald John Diaperstain is more than just a sick fucking asshole. he’s also a quadrice-indicted twice-impeached popular-vote-losing adderall-huffing insurrection-leading testimony-ducking judge-threatening lawyer-ignoring witness-tampering day-one-dictatoring disabled-veteran-dishonoring inheritance-squandering clown-makeup-smearing language-mangling serial-sexual-predating draft-dodging casino-bankrupting butler-bullying daughter-perving hush-money-paying real-estate-scamming bone-spur-faking ketchup-hurling justice-obstructing classified-war-plan-thieving golf-cheating weather-map-defacing horse-paste-promoting paper-towel-flinging race-baiting tax-evading evidence-destroying charity-defrauding money-laundering diaper-filling 91-count fluorescent tangerine felony factory.

Next, Evan Scrimshaw writes Political Solutions and Policy Problems: On the disconnect between Trudeau and Ford where he points out that political scandals don't matter as much as plain old pocketbook issues:

...Average rent for a 1 bedroom in Ontario in October 2018 was $1105. Now? $2238. It’s doubled in less just over five years. Instead of being sucked into sending open letters about the Staples disaster why isn’t the Opposition holding a press conference about this on a daily basis? Repeat this with hospital wait times and students taught in non-permanent classrooms and you have a message that won’t be transient....

...The honest truth is that voters will elect corrupt scumbags if they think that they do a good job when they’re not being corrupt. Hell, that was kind of the Liberal Party of Quebec’s whole implicit pitch for a few decades.

Trudeau is hurting because of policy problems, not political ones. There isn’t an ad blitz or a comms strategy that can solve his problems. However, because we keep letting Ford’s problems be seen as political, he can get his way out of them. Which is why the Opposition needs to let some of these Scandal Of The Week pitches go, and start focusing on the broader fucking attack, which is that the policy itself is rotten.

...There just are not enough people who will actually change their votes at the ballot box because of a political scandal. There are many fucking more who will because it takes them 12 fucking hours to get seen at an ER or because rent is double in just over 5 years.

If we want to end the Ford government, let’s pay attention to what is ailing Trudeau right now, and recognize the lesson. Political problems go away; policy failures cost governments their jobs....

Next, this is the week that Trump supporters (really) went nuts:

Imagine traveling back in time to 2009 and explaining to people which one of these people would become a liberal icon and which one would become a neo-Nazi. https://t.co/7TB1YsOYiP

— David Austin Walsh (@DavidAstinWalsh) January 31, 2024

In the Defector Blogs of the Week email, Patrick Redford writes:

... Donald Trump's halfwit foot soldiers are waging a high-pitched culture war centered around the romance between the Kansas City Chiefs tight end and superstar musician, putting Republicans in the curious rhetorical position of having to hate football and extremely popular white people....

When sad sandwich man Scott Walker complains about how the team with the Native American theme and Tomahawk chop is the simultaneous avatar of white supremacy and woke liberalism, or when Fox News is suddenly concerned about CO2 emissions because of Swift's private jet, it's almost funny. These losers are trying to run hypocrisy traps about the things they supposedly are fighting so hard to preserve. They don't even know what they want anymore! Come back when you're ready to make the case that Zay Flowers's CIA handlers instructed him to fumble the ball at the goal line.

Finally, this:

Often and rightly recognised as the finest paragraph on the whole of Wikipedia. pic.twitter.com/7cuUP6NzM5

— Guy Walters 🇺🇦 (@guywalters) January 31, 2024