Abraham Lincoln on Gen. Ulysses S. Grant following the victorious but costly Battle of Shiloh: “I can’t spare this man — he fights.”
Gavin Newsom‘s anti-Trump rant following the Los Angeles street conflicts was grandstanding…of course it was. Of course he’ll be running for president in ’28…so? Of course the anti-ICE violence was flaming and anarchic and ignoble to a great extent, but then Trump’s federalizing 4000 California National Guard troops, followed by the Pentagon sending in an additional 700 Marines, was pure authoritarian brutalist theatre….needless, unrequired, inflammatory. But who else is standing up to Donald Trump and giving him what for? The HE Newsom haters can’t deny the fact that earlier this week Newsom stood up for state sovereignty and pushed the hell back.
“In five days Gavin Newsom did more practical damage to Trump, and more importantly gave more practical encouragement to Democrats….he did more good than the rest of the zombie Democratic party has done since Joe Biden was elected [in 2020].” — Keith Olbermann on “Newsom’s ‘Eff It’ Moment” (6.12.25). (And yes — Olbermann supplied the Lincoln-Grant anecdote.)