It’s hard to describe how manic and insane MAGOP officials have become in their claims of “outrage” trying to convince the public that California has “rigged” the election against their candidates, and their MAGA base has (of course) taken up the cries and moans.  So massive and out of control it’s as if a biblical plague of locusts have swarmed over social media.  I try my best to respond online, but I only have 10 fingers, and there is just so much typing one can do in a day.  How obsessive is this insanity?  Trump has had his DOJ open an investigation into election fraud.  The only saving grace is I feel near-certain that the only people who believe this truly idiotic (in every sense of the word, no hyperbole) divisiveness are the MAGA base.  The vote counting process is incredibly transparent.  (Literally. The vote-counting centers are wide-open spaces, with only see-through dividers, open to the public to observe.)  Still, though, trying to undermine trust in bases of authority, like elections, is one of the core tenets of fascism.

And how fascist is it? Just today, the Trump U.S. Attorney who is in charge of the aforementioned "investigation," Bill Essayli, went on conspiratorialist Glenn Beck's radio show to emphatically proclaim that election fraud charges not only are coming, but very soon:  "one to two months, I believe."  There is only one small hurdle — "What we need right now are witnesses," he told the audience. "If you've witnessed anything… we wanna know about that."  Hey, cool, that's sure how the justice system in a democracy works.  File charges and look for evidence later.
 
Yes, I know that MAGOPs say they don’t like being called fascists, but that’s an easy fix:  if you don’t want to be called fascist, don’t push core tenets of fascism.
 
To be fair, many MAGOPs promoting this election lie might not know that doing so is fascist.  But that doesn’t change the fact (fact) that it is.  And they know it’s divisive.  Whether Mr. Essayli knows what on earth he is talking about is another matter.
 
I have a great deal to say here about this, because after responding so much relentlessly every day to the non-stop insidious lies, it’s exhausting and infuriating, and sometimes you finally need to vent. And writing an article in detail will allow me to just simply link to all of it online. (Hey, you try cramming everything that's needed into a 288-character tweet.  Repeatedly.  And repeatedly.  This paragraph alone is 448 characters!)
 
However, for those who have a life and want something manageable, I’ll instead just offer a very simple explanation of why even MAGOPs should be able to grasp that their belief is ludicrous, utterly unsupportable and dances in the garden of loony.  (They won’t grasp it, but it’s so easy that they should.)
 
So, here’s the really easy, MAGOP-friendly explanation –
 
In the City of Los Angeles, the number of registered Democrats is 1,224,737.  The number of registered MAGOPs in Los Angeles is 326,292.  That’s a margin of 4-to-1 Democratic.  So, to believe that the results are rigged is to presume that the sitting-Democratic Mayor Karen Bass would actually prefer to run against a two-term, Democratic progressive member of the L.A. City Council rather than a completely unqualified MAGOP reality TV participant with zero experience, who sells crystals for a living and blew a $10 million fortune, endorsed by Trump who himself has a 21% approval in Los Angeles.  That’s ludicrous.  Unsupportable. Nuts.
 
Furthermore, all state election results have shown for years that the state of California is about 60-40% Democratic.  Right now, over 1.5 million more votes have been counted for Democrats in this election statewide.  To believe that the results are rigged is to presume that virtually all polls which showed that Democrat Xavier Becerra and MAGOP Steve Hilton would finish 1-2 and make the run-off -- and the current results which show Becerra and Hilton are 1-2 and will likely make the run-off) -- are ”wrong”.  “Rigged.” “Fixed”.  That’s ludicrous.  Unsupportable.  Nuts.
 
That’s the short version, based on facts and logic. Now, we delve into the long, winding path of reality.  For those of you who chose to depart for calmer grounds, thanks for stopping by.
 
For everyone else, though, first a brief explanation why California vote counting takes a long time.  Always.  And everyone knows it takes a long time.  Always.  And it’s absolutely too long.  But it always is.  This shouldn’t be a shock to anyone, including MAGOPs.  But there are reasons it takes so long.
 
California is the most populous state, with 39.5 million people.  There are 58 counties, each which have their own local elections, and each independent jurisdiction counts, verifies and reports their votes separately, on their own schedule, before then reporting results to the state.  Counties have 30 days (by law) to count ballots.  When they report their final results, the Secretary of State has a week (by law) to certify results.
 
A momentary pause for a quick perspective:  In the 2024 presidential election, 16.1 million Californians voted.  That’s more people than the entire population of 46 states!!!  In Los Angeles County alone, more people voted than the population of 22 states!!
 
Okay, back to the California vote-counting process.  In order to be secure and accurate, every voter signature must be verified that it matches those registered on file.  (Each one of those 16.1 million, whether mail-in ballots or the in-person voter rolls.) If they don’t match or the signature is missing, the voter is notified and has until two days before the election is certified to fix the mistake.  Further, officials check that each mailed ballot was returned on time, and that the voter did not already cast another ballot in the same election.

Further, every registered voter in California gets sent a mail-in ballot, which is why Californians vote by mail heavily.  And mail-in ballots get counted last – because (by law) all mail ballots are legal as long as they’re postmarked by Election Day…and (by law) ballots have seven days to arrive before being certified by the state's election authority.  (Why so long?  Keep in mind, Trump cut back the Postal Service in his first term, slowing delivery.  The state doesn’t want to disenfranchise any person’s vote.)  The state then has 30 days (by law) to report their results, and the Secretary of State has a week to certify results.
 
By the way, lest the meaning of this gets lost in the numbing jumble:  rather than this too-long process be seen as supposed evidence of “rigging,” to the contrary it actually helps protect the security by catching any potential illegitimate ballots that shouldn’t be counted!  Which is exactly what Trump and MAGOPs are attacking the state for!  And it’s all done in literally transparent vote-counting centers open to the public.  Which includes Trump, his DOJ, Steve Hilton and Spencer Pratt, should any of them choose to check it out.

Okay, with that explanation out of the way, we now return you to the venting portion of today’s program.  Also known as the reality check.
 
And to start, to establish that reality, it must be noted for the record that almost all polls by election eve for the governor’s race had Democrat Xavier Becerra and MAGOP Steve Hilton in the top two positions.  What many MAGOPs overlooked in the polls was that there had been about 26% undecided.  (Most surely Democrats, who are the vast majority in the state and had eight major candidates in the race, to only two for MAGOPs).  And as Election Day neared, those “undecideds” decided, and by the end, many polls had Mr. Becerra taking over first place.  Which is exactly where the two candidates sit today in the vote count.  And for the record, in the L.A. mayoral race right before Election Day, all polls had Mayor Karen Bass winning the primary, and a close race for second place between Spencer Pratt and L.A. City Council member Nithya Raman. And while Mayor Bass will finish first -- when it came time to actually casting a vote, many of the remaining “protest” Democrats (whose party outnumbers MAGOPS by 4-to-1 in L.A.) saw Trump's late endorsement of Pratt, just days before the election, and as it appears decided instead to cast their protest vote for Ms. Raman, to push her to second place over the now Trump-endorsed MAGOP Pratt.
 
And so, let’s look now at a few samples of some of the most divisive, and “outraged” utterly loony, truly unhinged and sadly typical cries on social media from MAGOP officials about both of the major California primaries, for governor and Los Angeles mayor.  There were a torrential mass of these delusional, panicked attacks online, but with Trump, Ted Cruz, Mike Johnson, Steve Hilton and Spencer Pratt in the lead among them.  But there were a great many others -- as in many, many, many, many, many, many, many.  (At this point, I don’t recall which “outraged” MAGOP official or MAGA cultist tweeted what outrage, the names have all blurred into a mashed-together “someone,” so in most places here I can’t name the specific person writing.  Though the cries were near-identical.)
 
For instance, there was an “outraged” tweet about how “impossible” it was that Spencer Pratt would lose to someone who nobody had ever heard of.  For the record, that “someone” nobody heard of being referred to -- Nithya Raman -- is not only a sitting member of the Los Angeles City Council (of whom there are only 15, and they are more powerful together than the mayor)...but she has been elected twice!!!!  Hard as it might be to believe, just because the person tweeting from out of state didn’t know her -- people who actually live in Los Angeles do!!
 
Monica Crowley, the Chief Protocol Officer for Trump’s State Department, and a former Fox contributor, actually tweeted – “Literally no one believes the LA election ‘results.’ Another stolen election in broad daylight.”
 
Yes, Trump’s Chief Protocol Officer for State actually said “literally” no one.  Well, okay, as long as we’re using the word “literally,” what she insists here is "literally" as foolishly false as foolish false could be. As in, literally.  Democrats in L.A. outnumber MAGOPs 1,200,000 to 320,000.  I feel absolutely certain that tens of millions of Americans literally believe the Los Angeles election results.  Which is literally more than “literally “none.”
 
(I should note that Ms. Crowley’s general credibility is further harmed by being the person Trump had to withdraw his appointment as deputy NSA after reports came out that she had plagiarized part of her book What the (Bleep) Just Happened? and that there was plagiarism in her Ph.D. dissertation.)
 
Governor candidate Steve Hilton nervously sitting in second place at the moment petulantly wrote that “The world is laughing at our inability to count votes in a timely manner.  Where is Gavin Newsom?”
 
Actually, no, in reality if the world is laughing at anything it's at Mr. Hilton and other MAGOPs whining about making the two-person run-off, which all polls at the very end said would actually be the case!  As for where Governor Gavin Newsom is -- he’s staying out of the counting of votes...which is of course is the correct place for him and any politician to be.
 
The ever-divisive Ted Cruz, in one of his great-many “outraged” tweets wrote about how California elections are so “messed up” and adding divisively (of course), “It seems they keep counting until they get the results they want.”
 
Of course, by Cruz “logic”, that means the result Democratic power brokers supposedly want is to have a MAGOP in the final two run-off for governor (as it currently stands), and supposedly want (in a city with 900,000 more registered Democrats than MAGOPs) is for the sitting Democratic mayor to run against (as it currently stands) a highly-qualified, progressive city council member who could knock her off, as opposed to a wildly-unqualified MAGOP who sells crystals and is endorsed by Trump.
 
There was an “outraged” conspiracy-minded complaint how convenient it was that “IMMEDIATELY” after Nithya Raman took over second place from Pratt, all the news outlets immediately “called” the race for her.  Well…yeah, vote analysists call races when a candidate takes the lead, most of the remaining votes are in that party’s districts, and there aren’t enough other votes to overtake them.  That’s how it works.  But even more to the point, as most rational people grasp – It is news outlets who "call" races, based on their own statistical records and history. Not the state and local election officials – all of whom continue to count the votes until there's an official and final result.  Which are the only numbers that matter.  Not when a press outlet “calls” a race.
 
And so many more, on and on and relentlessly on.  It was, is, and will remain numbing.  Because Trump and MAGOP officials will relentlessly push it.  Including the DOJ “investigation."
 
The reality is very basic:
 
All polls had Mayor Karen Bass in first place, with MAGOP reality TV performer Spencer Pratt in second, and City Council member Nithya Raman a close third.  In a city where registered Democrats outnumber registered MAGOPs 4-to-1, Democrat Raman ended up with more votes than Pratt who will lose.  This is not shocking. 
 
And in a state that’s 60-40% Democratic, a MAGOP candidate made it into the run-off.  Even this is not shocking. Because it’s what the polls all showed.  What will be shocking is if Democrat Xavier Becerra doesn’t pummel Mr. Hilton in the run-off.
 
As I noted, the MAGOP “outrage” at supposedly “rigged” elections will have zero impact, since the only people who are buying the cries are other conspiracy-minded cult MAGOPs.  Because it’s what they do.  It’s what Trump has been doing for six years, still whining.  And “still” meaning up to this past Sunday when he was whining so much about rigged elections and so much about how everyone who is against him is either crooked or stupid that when he didn’t get his way, he pouted and stormed off.
 
Ultimately, things like that and MAGOPs crying about “fixed” and “rigged” elections will only be counter-productive, as I suspect most Americans by far grasp reality – and hate when Trump and MAGOP officials keep trying to undermine the authority and trust of elections, most especially without a whiff of evidence and court-losses after court-losses.  It’s the fascist playbook, whether they realize it or not.
 
But it is divisive.  And it is counter-productive to democracy.  And it is who the MAGOP have become.

There!  And I even did it all in just under 288 characters!!
​

What most analysts say is that it's not likely that police will be out looking for people holding their phone at a stop light, and are not likely to ticket people if they do spot someone.  (Though if they did, this being Los Angeles, they could probably make enough money on fines to get rid of the national debt...)  Still, with the cost of the fines and risk of getting points on your record, that's a lot to rely on "likely."

There's a lot that's great in the law.  But there's so much, too, that makes you want to shout, "What are earth were you thinking???!!"​

​ 
DATELINE:  June 14, 2024.
TIME:  8300 hours Pacific Coast Time
LOCATION:  Warzone L.A.
 
Concerned by stories of Los Angeles being overrun by terrorists, Insurrectionists and socialists, I knew it was important to find out the status of the city I was living in, to understand the level of destruction that had taken place all over, sending terror and mayhem through every neighborhood.  Had the city government been overthrown?  Was there still “burdensome leadership” in charge, as Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said, who should know.  How much of Los Angeles was in flames?  How much chaos was there throughout the city?  Has it been "liberated" yet?
 
Scared, but certain of my duty, I donned as much protective gear as I had and – to keep as safe as possible – I left the security of my home and, keeping to the back alleyways and hidden in the shadows, I carefully crept to the light-rail station a half-miles away to take me into the belly of the beast downtown, not daring use a car in case it got caught in a riot and I had to escape quickly on foot.
 
I documented my journey into hell.  And happily, but still-shaken, survived to pass along the report for future generations.
 
As I walked to the light-rail station, this is how out of control my neighborhood is –

Making it to the rail station, out of breath from fear, and still looking over my shoulder for any worrisome movements, I joined my fellow-refugees, most of whom had packed the platform to overflowing, carrying only one suitcase, looks of desperation in their eyes in hopes of escaping the madness and traveling as far away as possible to the safety of a distant town.

I took comfort when the light-rail train went underground, giving me at least a momentary sense of protection.  But since that occurred near downtown, the center of the storm, I remained apprehensive as I so-carefully creep up the long stairs to the sunlight, not knowing what darkness I would encounter.
 
And terrifying it was, because I was just a mere two blocks away from where the protest was gathering.  And everywhere I looked, so close to the epicenter of disaster, the streets were overrun by rioters. Cars everywhere, bumper-to-bumper madness, the blare of honking cutting through one's soul, so loud you couldn't hear yourself think.

As I made my way stealthily through the crowds, people like animals pushing and clawing every way possible, I didn’t know if I could continue on, even though I was but one long block away from my destination.  But then, almost like a beacon of light shining from heaven, I saw security.  There, to my joy, was the National Guard (I think that’s who it was, and not the Marines, but it didn’t matter to me, it was the military.  When caught in the blazing sun of a desert, you don’t stop to ask what branch of a tree is giving you the shade you crave to survive) -- making me feel safe as they protected the streets from the Insurrection and rioting all around us.  And ever on the alert to liberate this fair city.

I knew I would now make it to my goal.  It was an inexpressible relief, having had no idea that this would be awaiting me.  These joyful images of true valor are not one one we see on TV, are they??!!  How blessed they were.

 

​And while I carefully continued walking the final block to Zero Center Point, the police and National Guard kept up their heroic defense of the city, keeping us safe, as they blocked off the swarming streets filled with traffic.  I could breathe in comfort, if only for a moment, knowing too that the U.S. Marines were just around the corner and could rush in, weapons drawn, if needed.

​​In fairness, for all the protection, yes, there was great risk from crowds of protesters, when I finally reached them.  The Insurrections and radicals all gathered outside Los Angeles City Hall.  They may seem calm and polite and totally tranquil.  Not throwing rocks and being violent, but politely holding up signs. However, this is just a still photograph, you don’t hear the noise blaring from megaphones screaming at people to "Stay Peaceful!", and boomboxes blasting mariachi music, putting everyone’s senses on edge.  Moreover, we all know there is a calm before the storm.  And Insurrectionists, rioters and terrorists are devious, well-known to try to lull opposing forces into a false sense of security.

​​Further, ratcheting up the sense of danger and the concern of vandalism, there were gangs present, which only raised the tension and put everyone on their guard.  Here, wearing their gang “colors,” all dressed in unifying blue shirts are members of the notorious Writers Guild of America.  Very dangerous folks.  To my great concern, I got sucked into their circle when they saw I (foolishly) had worn my own blue shirt, so they thought this identified me as one of their own.  I thought the safest action on my part was to stick with the gang, rather than cause a disturbance by trying to break away and been seen as a threat.

And then the protest and march began, and I got sucked along, caught in the middle, like being dragged out into the ocean by an undertow.  Packed almost like sardines.  So many caught up there praying to be liberated.  At one point, I heard a chant, but couldn’t identify it because it was in a foreign tongue.  Someone near me, who spoke a smattering of Spanish, thought they were saying, “F*ck immigrants,” which struck me was odd.  That’s when another person who spoke better Spanish – likely because it was her native language – make a correction.  She said that, no, the words sound similar, but they were saying “F*ck ICE.”  I replied that, “Oh, okay, that makes more sense.  For a minute I thought I’d gotten into the wrong line.”  She burst into laughter.  And told her teenage son – who burst into laughter.

​One thing I noticed was that – perhaps to be disruptive and counter-culture, perhaps because handwritten signs don’t have spell-checkers, perhaps as an indictment of cutbacks to our educational system – there was uncertainly on occasion about the correct spelling for some placards.  This one ahead of me caught my eye.

​The flow of the socialist Insurrection out to overthrow Los Angeles swept us to Pershing Square, appropriately named after an Army general.  Indeed, looking all around me, I sensed that it was the empowering legend alone of General John J. Pershing that kept the rioters and vandals in order.  Yet even here, seven blocks from the original gathering point, there was brutal violence, and it was where I myself was attacked and beaten.  It happened so quickly, before I could defend myself.  As I was desperately trying to cross safely through the teeming mass of bodies, from out of nowhere a young woman was pointing out something to her friends, and as she turned, her hand brushed across my cheek. "Oh, my God, I'm so sorry," she quickly said. "That's okay," I replied instinctively, careful from my emergency preparation not to inflame the situation, knowing I could get First Aid later, if necessary, when I was safe. 

It was a large crowd, and there were a great many others on either side and behind, and waves of more and more coming, and yet the spirit of authority dating back to WWI had the violent protesters intimidated, looking instead like they were waiting for the gates to open and get into the Hollywood Bowl to hear a pop music concert…

​Over 20,000 people were reported in Los Angeles on Saturday.  (Double-check notes for clarification:  I don’t mean reported in all of Los Angeles since my research shows there are 3.8 million residents.  And to be fully accurate, 12.9 million in the metropolitan area, which covers 4,850 square miles).  And I’m not referring to all the rebel terrorists being here at Pershing Square, since they were spread throughout the city. (Well, again, to be clear, yes, linguistically it was "throughout the city," but physically focused solely downtown -- although not over the entire downtown, but basically an eight-block area,)  But still, that’s a lot of rioters, Insurrectionists and vandals in a metropolitan area of 12.9 million.  And there are a lot more you can’t see. 
 
And sure, they may seem peaceful, just walking along with signs, and occasionally chanting, and maybe dancing sometimes.  But as we saw later in the day, when law enforcement fires tear gas and rubber bullets at a calm crowd for no apparent good reason, you never know how people will react.

And in the middle of all this mass protest – with the police, county sheriff, National Guard and Marines thankfully protecting the city under siege from what they describe as mayhem, rioting, violence and vandalism – liberating Los Angeles from socialists and "burdensome leaders" -- well, gosh, sometimes Insurrectionists just get flat-out hungry.  Protesting and trying to overthrow the government is hard work, and it was a hot day.  Luckily, because this is the kind of city Los Angeles is, the City of Angels there was an outdoor café nearby to help feed The People…

And one thought remains, as  I make it safely back home, thanks to the protective support of law enforcement:

If Trump, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, Border Czar Tom Homan and others are truly as interested as they insist and show here in Los Angeles to deport immigrants who got into the country illegally, I pass along the suggestion which appears to have fallen through the cracks:  they should go after Elon Musk -- whose brother Kimbal says on camera, with Elon uncomfortably sitting there, that they were "illegal immigrants."

There’s a point to this all, so bear with me.  It’s not about a favorite food, though it may seem so on the surface.
 
The tale does begin though with what has become a favorite food.  It’s known as “Nashville hot chicken” and has become very popular in Los Angeles, and apparently has been spreading through other parts of the country.  It began back in 1936 when Thornton Prince opened the BBQ Hot Chicken Shack (in Nashville, of course…), which later changed its name Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack in the 1980s.
 
I became a big fan of the food five years ago when Kim Prince (great-great niece of the original) opened her wonderful Hotville Chicken in South Central Los Angeles.  The inveterate Chris Dunn -- who introduced me to the place -- and I began frequent lunches there, and I wrote about Hotville four years ago here, if you want to know more about the place and its history.  Though that’s not the point here.
 
As great as their food is -- and it is great, in fact a “Best of L.A.” award--recipient from Los Angeles Magazine and making the Los Angeles Times 101 Best Restaurants list -- the owner/chef Kim Prince is even better.  She’d visit with the customers, and Chris and I have always loved our conversations with her, not a perfunctory "How's it going, how was your meal?," but stopping to talk, sitting down sometimes ​for 10-15 minutes. Full of kindness, not just for her customers, but her community, but even (actually) for her competitors.  She wants everyone to succeed, and puts actions to her words, a dynamo going out through the city relentlessly.  But that’s not the point here either – though it gets closer to it.
 
Because of COVID and the restaurant’s difficult location (though one Kim insisted on because of the community), Hotville Chicken unfortunately had to close down.  However, she teamed up with another pillar of the community, Greg Dulan of the legendary L.A. spot, Dulan’s Soul Food on Crenshaw – and the two created a successful food truck, Dulanville, which has relentlessly (of course) traveled throughout the city for the past several years.  And no, that too is not the point, but we’re getting close.
 
The point (and finally, we’re there…) is that last week, Kim Prince and Greg Dulan were on Jimmy Kimmel Live!  The reason is that he’s been featuring local chefs who have shown up in wildfire zones to feed people in need – and Kim and Greg, being who they are, are among those.
 
But it’s even more impressive than that.  To put it in perspective, when I sent an email to the Hotville account about how nice it was to see her on Kimmel’s show, she wrote back the following note, the details of which blew me away.  Though (being who she is), I wasn't surprised at that.  She wrote –

​​Here’s the video of their appearance on the show –
​

On this week’s Naked Lunch podcast, hosts Phil Rosenthal and David Wild have a special episode where they take listeners’ calls to discuss the recent wildfires in Los Angeles -- among them, check-ins from Brad Paisley and David's wife Fran Wild. They also write that “To learn more about building community through food and ‘Somebody Feed the People’ visit the Philanthropy page…” here at philrosenthalworld.com.

I believe this is where some people might insert "What would Jesus do?" so that the faux-religious right can understand it in their language.

It would be so cool to know what changes does the Great Swami suggests, since I am certain he doesn’t have the slightest clue of all the detailed planning that is truly done in the state.  Being Tuberville, maybe he thinks that California should cut down all the trees here and install Astroturf in the forests.
 
Still, Mr. Tuberville is welcome to the Hurricane Helene emergency relief that California helped pay for – and pay more for than any other state.  Which, in fact, it pays more for than any other state for all disaster aid, all the time.  In fact, contributing more in federal taxes than it gets back, so that all the states that underpay (like, say, Alabama) can use for their disaster relief.

And all MAGOPs in Congress know this.  Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) knows it.  But that didn't stop the faux-wannabe religious leader from saying with his veneer of devout emotion, when asked about emergency aid to California, "I think there should be conditions."  (No word yet if this is what Jesus would do.  Though if anyone does knows, it could be the self-proclaimed Moses, Mike Johnson, as he directs the people trying to escape Pharoah into the fire.)  By the way, when Louisiana screwed up building its levees, I might have liked to have said there should be conditions on emergency aid to them after Hurricane Katrina drowned New Orleans, but...well, I didn't because I'm not cruel and heartless, nor a religious hypocrite about my fellow citizens when in catastrophic need.

That’s just four MAGOPs (including Trump) out of all the self-righteous MAGOP officials they represent spewing intentional cruelty and ignorance – while the wildfires are still burning, and millions of people remain at risk.  Because that's who've all seen the MAGOP is today.  Splitting families. Denying healthcare.  Caging children.  Banning books, banning the teaching of Black history, banning drag shows.  It's just business as usual.  And it’s all the more pathetic for their inhumane vindictiveness not only being directed at the tens of millions of people (most who don't even live in the area) simply because the majority of the state votes in a way these MAGOP officials don't like, but also ignoring there are over 10 million people in their own party here -- and ignoring, too, that everyone in the state is a part of the same whole, taking on the same burdens of helping and rebuilding (because that's how states and community work) and suffering the same.  To refute every MAGOP lie, misinformation, ignorance, disinformation and conspiracy theory would be like playing the world's most hellish game of Whack-a-mole.  ​

I’m not suggesting all the country would rise up in outrage – it won’t.  But 5-10% (or 25%) recognizing how totally unacceptable this would be to Americans whose lives and communities have been destroyed, seeing it all on TV endlessly for a week – I don’t think that is unreasonable to consider.  I don’t think Trump can come away from withholding funds unscathed.  That doesn’t mean he still won’t do it, only that even he might get pushed enough to act, but if he doesn’t, if he withholds federal funding,  or starts layering on "strings" and "conditions," I think he’ll pay a price.
 
In fact, for all I know, if Trump does nothing, despite Dr. Sen. Barrabasso’s contention of "ultimate" aid that comes with all his "strings" (along with Coach Tuberville's "changes" and the Very Rev. Mike Johnson's "conditions"), most members of Congress might even ignore them and vote to put together an aid package because, as much as they follow Trump, they aren’t Trump and know that their own states might well face far-less emergencies at some point and need assistance.  And this is a national disaster.
 
Though maybe not as much as what used to be the Republican Party.