Hart Murphy 

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How about Reagan on foreign aid... I apologize if it has been posted earlier.

youtube.com/watch?v=zap…

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If you want the USAID hit to wear a more familiar face, you might want to write about Catholic Charities, the network of agencies that function as the domestic relief arm of Catholic Relief Services.

Catholic Charities has branches in approximately 4,000 U.S. cities. These agencies do everything from food banks and emergency financial assistance (rent, medication) to providing transportation for seniors (to doctors' appointments, grocery stores, etc.) who no longer drive.

There's considerable syn…

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I'm surprised that Trump calls him Cryin' Chuck when a much better diss is right there: Schmuck Schumer.

I say that in jest. In seriousness, the problem with Schumer is the same problem that Republicans like Rubio and Collins have. They're surfers riding waves. Pelosi understands power. So does McConnell. So did Reid. And for that matter, Biden (he understood it, in that he understood that he seldom had it and was content to work with and through those who did). For all of his rhetorical gifts, …

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The stories of those overseas doomed to die are important. USAID workers and USAID government contractors (my colleagues laid off and furloughed) aren’t particularly sympathetic, though their plights are horrible, and the work they no longer do is critical for U.S. interests. But farmers who can’t sell their surplus to USAID are sympathetic. Small businesses that work with USAID are screwed and are sympathetic. Any faith-based organizations without an exemption are. Show the red state folks crushed by the USAID fiasco. That will resonate.

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“Second rule of fight club: Find good ground. USAID does not look like good ground. It’s a massive program. It’s mostly about foreign aid. It’s a process story. Musk thinks it’s a great place to make a stand.”

Agreed! We need to make it personal, but you do t need to go overseas. They should start at the CDC, and NIH; talking to doctors and scientists whose funding was stopped, causing their studies to be terminated early. Now, they need to start from scratch; all the information and data wasted…

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Personalizing the coming tragedies is essential and so is a wrap up statement giving the future tragedy because of the loss of these programs. I also think it's possible that a media blitz focused on the 'Soul of America' has possibilities if done correctly. Especially if the stories of deported immigrants are included, tales from NIH researchers, effects from grant stoppages for community health centers, impacts on individual farmers of USAID closure, and on and on and on. Musk and Trump may h…

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Democrats: Have your most plaintive faces on/in the news, all the time, explaining, in simple, straightforward language what kind of suffering is in store for people here, and around the world, because of Trump and his minions. Show pictures, faces of the poor and distraught and how uncaring and unfeeling this presidency is, and how much worse it can get. Tell the world that the Rs are NOT DISRUPTING SUFFERING. THEY ARE ADDING TO IT. And talk about who is causing it...the richest and most privileged people on Earth. Gut punches. Heart punches.

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Government shutdown would go a long way towards limiting the damage MAGA can inflict. It's not just a negotiation tactic. It's BENEFICIAL if it happens.

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Josh Marshall: "The standard should be no help on the budget or the debt ceiling until the lawbreaking stops. Period. End of story. No wilding gangs marauding through the federal government. End the criminal conduct. Period.

That’s it. No nuance."

That's a great idea except for one tiny little flaw. Democrats have no way of enforcing any agreement to "end the criminal conduct." "Binding legislative solutions?" Name one. Much of what President Musk and his Orange Poodle have done is already illega…

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Personalize, like this letter from yesterday:

“Uncommon Sense was a Common Vice

Those with knowledge of the United States Marine Corps will recognize the irony of this title. I wish its words were not true, but as I write this, I believe they are.

Currently, there is an effort to cull a significant number of career Special Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. This is an unthinkable action that will gravely undermine the security of the nation well beyond what many of our citizens are a…

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Allowing people to die because treatment is withheld forms the basis for a moral argument. The notoriously fickle American Electorate has shown repeatedly that they are not reachable with moral arguments. The price of eggs is the basis for an economic argument. The same American Electorate just elected a convicted felon and financial genius that has bankrupted every business he ever ran on the basis of an economic argument. Want to save USAID? Trot out the moral arguments and they will resonate…