Sometimes, a blogger, no matter how earnest, should get out of the way and let a pro do it. Below you will find a link to a February 1, 2026, column by New York Times Columnist David French. I consider it the most important piece you will read this year, due to its combination of acuity and timeliness. If you have access to it but haven’t read it, do so now. For those reading these notes who don’t, I was pretty tempted to cut and paste it here – I am pretty darn confident that the Times and Mr. French wouldn’t feel threatened by the Noise – but my years engaged with copyright law have dissuaded me; after all, somebody has to follow the rules. So – if you don’t currently have access to the Times, GET IT, simply for access to this one piece.
My only aside: at one point in his column, Mr. French refers to President Donald Trump’s “ … base, the people who trust him more than any news source …” Something that happened very recently, that even I – think about that — found completely unnerving: one of us was talking to a family friend, a diehard Trump supporter, and it became clear that this friend was completely oblivious to the reality that current polls show that a notable majority of Americans disapprove of Mr. Trump’s conduct of the presidency, that an even more marked majority of Americans have deep reservations about the Regime’s thuggish ICE raids, that Mr. Trump has significantly degraded – not enhanced — America’s standing in the world, and that all of Mr. Trump’s Cabinet picks aren’t all wonderful.
Completely oblivious.
What percentage of our citizens fall into this category? At a guess – a quarter? Wouldn’t one likewise guess that today, a quarter of Russian citizens truly support Vladimir Putin? Or that a quarter of Venezuelan citizens genuinely supported Nicolás Maduro before America deposed him?
If you’ve got the guns, that’s all it takes.
McCoy's Noise 
As I have said before, in my opinion, Trump has built a coalition of losers who needed stupidity and racism to be given patriotic status. While they make up the backbone of the MAGA crowd, they are only 30 – 35% of the population I believe. Trump won the election on cultural issues where they always kick the Democrats ass….used to be abortion, family values…but in the last election it was illegal immigration (which Biden encouraged) and the transgender sports BS, courtesy of Jill Biden, mouthed by Joe. Those two issues got him the percentage of independents necessary to win again. The ultra rich who always support Republicans because they fear the increasing number (though hardly still enough) of Americans who are starting to figure out that maybe Republican politicians only answer to the money sources is an enabler. I would be remiss not including Christian evangelicals in the Trump coalition whose gullibility know no bounds.
Things are bad, will have to get worse (and will) before MAGA just stands alone before changes are made after the midterm elections.
Edk
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