Donald Trump
rAs I was finally kicking my feet up and settling into a football game Monday night, to get lost in some meaningless diversion from the relentless madness overrunning America, my phone buzzed.
Good God, what now, I thought?
When I grudgingly reached for the overheated troublemaker, this is what confronted me.
Collapse imminent? Desperate call? Emergency sirens? What the …?
THIS is what I am being accosted with at 10 p.m., while trying to wind down from another insane day?
I slapped my phone down, and went into a slow boil …
To be honest, I had a lousy Monday, so maybe this message set me off more than it should have, but when I woke up this morning from a semi-sleepless night, I found I was still in a mood, and figured at least this much needed writing:
STOP IT WITH THESE LOADED MESSAGES, DEMOCRATS
Anybody who cares enough to pay attention to what is happening in (and to) the United States is to the point of being scared to death right now. Not an hour goes by that Trump and his nauseating Republicans aren’t terrorizing America.
We are dealing with a lot.
Preying on our emotions like this late at night by sending urgent missives designed to empty our pockets is insensitive at best, and abusive at worst.
Too often, it’s even worse than that, because a lot of the crap in all these damn messages — and last night’s in particular — is just plain nonsense.
That makes them insulting, and dangerous, because there are already more than enough political lies and misinformation destabilizing America.
To start, this election in Pennsylvania is nothing like what went down in Georgia, four-plus years ago. In fact, this election on Nov. 4, is like few others anywhere, and many Pennsylvanians don’t even know that.
Here’s what they do need to know: Vote YES to retain the three Supreme Court justices currently on the bench. You’d think a loud, obnoxious message like the one I was bombarded with above would at least say that much.
By voting to retain the three justices in this election, liberals will hold onto a 5-2 majority on that court, and protect Pennsylvanians from the evil machinations of the no-good Republicans in that battleground state.
If you want more, I encourage you to have a look at this tremendous article I found from Spotlight PA that gets into the particulars of the race: Pa. election 2025: What is judicial retention, and why does it matter for Supreme Court balance?Among other things, it does a thorough job of breaking down how Pennsylvania conducts its whacky Supreme Court elections.
(NOTE: I sent this piece, along with a few of my own choice words, to the devils at ActBlue, who accosted me with their fundraising message. They either have no idea how these elections are run, or worse, really don’t give a damn just as long as they can scare the hell out of everybody by screaming about some damn fictional, “imminent collapse.”)
The Spotlight PA write is lengthy, but I encourage you to read it. For now, though, here are some important bits I extracted from the piece, with passages I highlighted for emphasis:
- These yes-or-no retention elections are a big deal, and if Republicans succeed in their stated goal of getting Pennsylvanians to vote “no,” they could set the stage for a total remaking of the court. But the process is also very different from a traditional election, and Republicans won’t automatically win a majority even if they get “no” votes.
- Retention elections are not partisan, so when a judge appears on the ballot to be retained, their name won’t have a party next to it. These elections also don’t involve an opposing candidate. Voters are simply asked to say yes or no to giving a judge another decade on the bench. If the vote is yes, the judge stays on. If it is no, the governor can appoint a temporary replacement subject to the approval of the state Senate. An election for a replacement to serve a full 10-year term is then held in the next odd year, which means that if a judge isn’t retained this year, voters won’t pick a long-term replacement until 2027. The judges appointed as replacements traditionally don’t stand for full-term elections, though nothing actually prevents them from doing so.
- Is a ‘no’ vote on retention the norm? Nope. It’s extremely unusual. Most judges up for retention win new terms by comfortable margins. Just one statewide judge has lost retention since 1968, when the state constitution was last updated — Supreme Court Justice Russell Nigro.
OK, me again.
From an historical standpoint, things look pretty good for the Left-leaning justices in this race. I should also add that recent polling has “yes” leading by double-digits. Democrats have also spent more than three times as much money as Republicans on the race according to the tracking service AdImpact.
All that, despite the bombastic claims in that loud fundraising message designed to get your heart beating and your head screaming.
Look, the Supreme Court race in Pennsylvania is important as hell. EVERY election in the United States of America is as important as hell, and should be treated as such.
From now until Nov. 4, we should all do what we can within reason to help our fellow patriots in Pennsylvania prevail at the voting booth. We do that by spreading the truth, and offering a hand up, not a punch in the face with late-night scare tactics.
I believe this constant assault on our senses is having a negative effect on voters right now. I believe we are in danger of burning people out who have been running hot for the better part of a decade trying to stand up for Democrats by putting down this Republican fascism that is overrunning this country.
Since last November’s nightmare, Democrats have fared incredibly well in elections all over the country, including the battleground state of Wisconsin, where the liberal justice running for that Supreme Court won by a whopping 10 points in April.
You’ll remember that election because it is the one the grotesque Elon Musk used to bribe voters with all his blood money. Turns out, it takes more than just money to win elections ...
I’ve had enough of all this repellent fundraising, and these offensive scare tactics.
I say we could stand a pat on the back, instead of a kick in the ass.
I say we give each other a break, before we are broken for good.
I say thank you for all you are doing.
D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes. You can find all his work here.