227 Comments
Nov 20Liked by Catherine Maxwell

The media and Democrats have destroyed their credibility with their myriad of hoaxes from their Kavanaugh lies to Russia collusion lies to my local Texas officials who are currently under indictment for impersonating residents and posting fake racial comments about themselves to gain pity votes. I do not trust anything the left says anymore, they did this to themselves.

Expand full comment
author

Politics changed after Kavanaugh, for sure.

Expand full comment

Not trusting ANYTHING is truly the key. The "truth is subjective" crowd should never have been trusted, by definition, but even as more and more people digest the fact that they lie about some big things, they still have Gell-Mann Amnesia - they still believe a lot of things that they shouldn't.

Particularly, they believe that "the other side is worse" without realizing that they built that opinion on claims made by the liars.

Expand full comment

Yeah, “sex scandals”. Who ever could have seen that perennial favorite smear coming? More Kavanaugh “rape train” tactics.

Sad.

Expand full comment
author

Right, I’m not passing judgement in any of the particular cases. But it’s undoubtably unprecedented. We will see how it plays out in a post-Kavanaugh culture.

Expand full comment

I believe that even without Gaetz “supposedly” unsavory behavior, he is simply not qualified nor suitable for the Attorney General position. From reports, apparently he has practiced law for no more than 2 years. That alone should disqualify him.

Expand full comment

i'm more qualified for poet laureate than he is for that office. and as far as getting sh*t done i don't think he's a karlaftis.

Expand full comment

Sex scandals is the lefts' playbook to smear republicans and confuse Christians.

Expand full comment

And yet, when two democrats film themselves in the senate chamber... Crickets.

Expand full comment

Well, several years ago in Canada, there was an MP who repeatedly but "accidentally" filmed himself naked on Zoom meetings to his fellow MPs. He always had an excuse. But somehow he continued doing it.

Expand full comment

Wait. It really must have been crickets. What are you referring to?

Expand full comment

A democrat staffer took a video of himself and his boyfriend having sex in the senate chamber. The story vanished as quickly as it surfaced.

Expand full comment

Whoa! I never heard the first peep of that. When did this occur? Was it recently?

Expand full comment

It was.... bold to say the least

Expand full comment
21 hrs ago·edited 19 hrs ago

It's been awhile, but I found a news article about it: https://time.com/6548618/senate-staffer-sex-scandal-hearing-room/

Expand full comment

I’m enjoying the “the ethics committee report was hacked” bullshit. Oh yeah, that’s what happened. 🙄

Expand full comment
Nov 20Liked by Catherine Maxwell

My new maxim: "Never underestimate leftist stupidity"

They had 1 Billion dollars, the elite media, celebrities, lying poll industry, 4 years of lawfare

and they STILL got crushed.

I have to admit that during the last four years there were days when it felt like we (MAGA supporters)

were throwing a nerf football into a hurricane. But i never lost faith.

These people are too stupid to believe.

Always remember the HL Menecken maxim: A moron decorated with a PHd is still a moron"

Rock on Mr Rufo. lets make America great, healthy, and free again.

Expand full comment
author

Yes, good point, it’s amazing that they had all of the structural advantages in the world, and still managed to lose. This is a huge testament to President Trump.

Expand full comment

It is also a huge testament to the men and women who voted for Trump, defying the oppressive media. Check out Matt Goodwin’s post today on hate crime policing in the UK. Harris would have taken us there and those men and women voters stopped the madness in its tracks here in the USA.

Expand full comment

And eugyppius: a plague chronicle Subtack today on a similar theme:

"Tweeting the poop emoji at a cabinet minister, quoting politicians inexactly, calling a Green fat & stupid – all of this is criminal speech in the freest and most democratic Germany of all time"

https://www.eugyppius.com/p/tweeting-the-poop-emoji-at-a-cabinet

Expand full comment

But Germany is slipping into totalitarianism again, the same as the 1930s. They never did learn what caused it the first time, and so they are going to repeat it again under certain circumstances.

Not that they are alone this time.

Expand full comment

This is not new. It has been going on for years in Australia, NZ, Canada. Matt Goodwin tends to write as it he is the first one to see such things and that he brings his readers the scoop.

Not so. There are many Substack exaggerators. I read international media, have done so for decades, and I can tell you this is a rather old phenomenon.

Expand full comment

Surprisingly, people in the UK rarely read Australian media. Goodwin is not exaggerating. This isn’t a race. Knowledge builds on knowledge.

Expand full comment

You better be quick about it!

Expand full comment
11 hrs ago·edited 11 hrs ago

Yes, Matt Goodwin does exaggerate. I know far more about the field than you, from what you say. And Goodwin is far behind. He thinks he is introducing amazing insights, but he does not know these insights have been discussed already by many others for years or decades or more. He is late to the party, but he means his readers to think he is some kind of great discoverer.

I am not talking about people in the UK reading Australian media. I do not find them very well informed, actually, as a population. I am talking about reading it myself.

This isn't a race? That sounds like an excuse from someone trying to cover the fact that he has been badly outdone and he knows it 😁.

Better luck next time, Terry. I am sorry if you are just starting to catch on to such things. It is very familiar to me and has been for years.

Expand full comment

And to the limits of BS the American people are willing to tolerate.

Expand full comment
founding

I like your enthusiasm, but it is important to understand that nothing have yet been accomplished. The Republicans have only been given an opportunity to get something accomplished, and their track record in the past is not good.

You and other readers might be interested in this article that I recently wrote on the topic.

Key takeaway: Trump only has 15 months to get his agenda implemented, so it is extremely important to focus on a few key issues that really matter:

https://frompovertytoprogress.substack.com/p/priorities-for-the-second-trump-administration

Expand full comment

From the most powerful office in world politics Biden/Harris enshrined DEI in one day in 2020.

Expand full comment
founding

Trump has to get HIS cabinet picks across the finish line…

We need disruptors now more than ever. I know, I’ve been an elected official- the bureaucrats think and behave without consideration for their unelected positions.

They hold their noses until the next election and that repeats.

Trump recognized very early on, before 2015, that real change had to happen.

When I met him in 2015 in Iowa before he announced, I told him if he did decide he would prevail, but the media would attempt to destroy him. He told me “ don’t you worry I know how to handle the media.”

Fast forward to today.

He knows what to do- let’s make sure he gets the opportunity.

Expand full comment

Well said. At this point, I go with what Trump says unless I can find reasons not to and I completely discount all Dems unless I can find a reason to agree. They have completely lost reality. Biden is trying to start a nuclear war and all the MSM (the Dem propaganda cartel) can talk about is Trump. Wow-useless.

Expand full comment

Actually, Trump did a piss poor job of "handling the media" in his first term as he told you he would do in 2015. The media, et al. ran right over him, or thought they did. What brought Trump back, besides the man himself, was the hubris and incompetence of the Democrats. Now Trump has a mandate because the Democrats destroyed themselves. And the legacy media no longer has power as they also self-immolated. The only thing standing in Trump's way at this point is the Mitch McConnells of the Senate.

Expand full comment

Yeah, I don't know...without Covid, Trump may have waltzed to a landslide in 2020.

Expand full comment
founding

You are absolutely right-

Expand full comment

I also think Trump getting shot and that now iconic photo of him, fist raised and blood trickling down his face swung a lot of undecided voters to his side.

Expand full comment
founding

I think that having a prioritized agenda is just as important as cabinet picks.

You and other readers might be interested in this article that I recently wrote on the topic.

Key takeaway: Trump only has 15 months to get his agenda implemented, so it is extremely important to focus on a few key issues that really matter:

https://frompovertytoprogress.substack.com/p/priorities-for-the-second-trump-administration

Expand full comment
founding

He makes it harder and herder every single day for me to defend my vote for him, with thes picks.

We all know that we never hear about 90% of the secretaries once they get in, but...

Expand full comment
author

I would ask you to withhold judgment until the facts are clearly established. The lesson of Kavanaugh was that left-wing accusations of impropriety should not be taken at face value.

Expand full comment

I want to hear about them. I want to hear that they're shredding business as usual in DC. I keep saying, the biggest problem this country has is DC. And the biggest problem DC has is the two corrupt parties.

Expand full comment

No need to we wring our hands and clutch our pearls. Trump had a good record and JRB Ware didn't. Cabinet picks are justbthe tools Trump will use. Some are bwtter than others. Life goes on.

Expand full comment

>disruptors

Thunder rolls!

Expand full comment

Sex scandals always seem to materialize at just the right moment...funny that!🤔

Expand full comment
24 hrs agoLiked by Catherine Maxwell

All these suggestions are great. Can we start a campaign to our representatives to have the agencies and departments headquartered out of DC and make them move to different parts of the country? DC is incestuous, and we all know what happens to families that are inbred. Time to make them get out and go touch the grass again with the rest of us. Just somewhere else.

Expand full comment

I concur. Let's start by moving the ATF headquarters to Waco, TX, or Ruby Ridge, ID

Or better yet . . . just defund/neuter the entire ATF

Expand full comment

I have been saying this for years! It would be so beneficial in draining the swamp and have the side benefit of bringing much needed jobs to ‘flyover country’.

Expand full comment

His 1st term he moved Dept. of Agriculture to Kansas City. half would not relocate and of course ,they lost "diversity" and some brain power

Expand full comment

You guys have this backwards. Moving a federal bureaucracy to a "red" area will not improve the bureaucracy; it will turn the "red" area blue.

The sort of people who want to work in bureaucracy are not right-wing. There is no solution to this other than to reduce the authority of bureaucracy.

Expand full comment

The DOE won’t need to relocate…because, hopefully, it will no longer exist. Chris, if you are appointed Secretary of Education and are looking for high IQ people with wrecking balls, I have both ;). You’re on MY short list and will receive an introductory email/snail mail soon ;).

Expand full comment

DOGE should publicly and repeatedly brand the federal employees they lay off as "non-essential workers."

Expand full comment
author

🙌

Expand full comment
Nov 20Liked by Catherine Maxwell

Thanks for this opportunity, Mr. Rufo. And mazal tov on the new baby!

My news is I helped an early teen boy out of Pink Mist rabbit hole of imagining he's more female than male. I introduced the Wellness Checklist, mentioned that the old studies are losing validity because too many subjects detransitioned (See Call Me Sam youtube channel, famous Ray Blanchard data "case study") and I suggested that "Paul" make time outside walking and gardening be equal to time online. A few minor details like good sleep, healthy eating, brushing teeth 2x a day. This was by no means "conversion therapy." After 6 weeks of recalibrating his schedule and some logical critical thinking, he dropped the cross sex ideation, saying he thinks it was early exposure to porn on his phone that lured him into the fantasy. Link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz0Zy-J5OYc&t=20s

Expand full comment

i do feel fantastic. but to explain sort of like vizzini, i learned biology before psychology, and in that learning learned that sex is determined by chromosomes; i likewise saw shakespeare before pornography, and in that seeing saw that people are most beautiful when they are speaking; and i further saw drag race instead of a psychiatrist, thereby keeping my balls and penis. why nip when you can tuck?? it never made any sense.

Expand full comment
Nov 20Liked by Catherine Maxwell

Here’s hoping that the changing tone of the country will (finally) put a damper on the incessant talk of “equity.” The very idea of an assured outcome for all, regardless of whether or not it’s deserved, is little more than a Marxist pipe-dream

The pursuit of equality of opportunity is a lofty and admirable goal, but the idea of enforced equity (despite what the politicians, activists, influencers, and social workers would have you believe) is a joke and a lie, nothing but grifter propaganda of the first order

Expand full comment
author

And we already have equality of opportunity, at least for the vast majority of Americans. What the equity proponents want is equality of outcome, which is absolutely a joke and a lie, not to mention dangerous for the government to pursue. If someone wants to achieve something, she should put in her own work and succeed on her own terms.

Expand full comment

I 99% agree. Sometimes though, equality of opportunity is prevented by ideology and prejudice. For instance, a conservative seeking a career in academia or journalism really has no chance.

Some of that could be altered - at least in the public sector - by withholding funding from colleges and universities that refuse to implement/maintain a balance in their hiring practices. One of the biggest mistakes conservatives ever made was allowing the left to take over the education sector.

Expand full comment
author

Very true, although as a conservative seeking a career in journalism, I beg to differ--there are plenty of opportunities. But I've been blessed with the ability to attend one of the few non-woke colleges in the country, so my situation is a little different than most. Conservatives absolutely need to take back education and get rid of the rot in academia--New College of Florida is a great model for how that could happen.

Expand full comment
23 hrs agoLiked by Catherine Maxwell

My experience says different . . . but after spending 40 years as a conservative in writing/journalism (local, regional and national) I’ve seen enough that I’m pretty jaded by the inner workings of most newsrooms.

Great school you attend. Many. many years ago the Hillsdale student-run newspaper sub-contracted to me for quite a bit of freelance work. Hillsdale is impressive, to say the least, and Imprimis is still on my list of monthly must reads.

Expand full comment
author

I'm sorry you've had a rough time with newsrooms--I don't mean to denigrate your experience at all. I've given up on established media, but there are lots of smaller, conservative newsrooms developing, such as the Daily Wire, The Federalist, and the Daily Caller. Plus with Elon's X and the rise of podcasts (which is a tough industry, I'll admit), there are more ways to get your thoughts out there. But Hillsdale's journalism program is pretty amazing in getting people connected (that's how I met Chris, actually), so I can't speak to non-Hillsdale conservatives hoping to get into journalism.

It's so cool that you worked with our paper! I write for it a bunch myself. Glad to hear you still read Imprimis, as well. :)

Expand full comment

So, does anyone know of any real evidence against Gaetz.? Silly me, I'm from the old days where you're innocent until proved guilty. Is there any solid evidence? Or is it just more of the same old crap from the same old crappy muckrakers?

Expand full comment

Check this out from Mollie Hemingway from the Federalist - case dismissed two years ago by the DOJ because of unreliable witnesses. I’ll say! His main accuser is in jail on an 11 year sentence, partly for trying to frame others for the exact same thing. It’s pure evil that the Dems put this out there in the first place although the refuge of scoundrels knows no bounds.

https://thefederalist.com/2024/11/17/house-probe-into-matt-gaetz-relies-on-witnesses-doj-found-lacked-credibility/

Expand full comment

I think of the cases against both Trump and Kavanaugh. NO witnesses. NO physical evidence. Even the 'corroborating' witnesses listed by the accusers said they knew nothing about the claims. And the 'incidents' were decades in the past, brought forth only when democrats desired to smear the reputations of people they opposed.

How in the hell do claims like this see the light of day? DC is indeed a swamp.

Expand full comment

The prisoner who accused him is a serial accuser.

There aren't too many ways to make money in prison, but he found one.

Expand full comment

A dude in prison who accuses people for a living made up the charges. I also heard that he dated a 19 year old woman for a short time. Then the prisoner or someone tried to say she was 17. Dont know if that’s true, but I am pretty sure about the prisoner making up the accusations.

Expand full comment

I'm interested in this as well. Just because some cases against conservatives have been unfounded doesn't mean they all are.

Expand full comment
Nov 20Liked by Catherine Maxwell

Free j6ers, free anti abortion advocates, kick out the UN, get out of WHO, no WEF representatives allowed to rule in America, reduce the feds, go after the deep state, demolish education dept., do audits on all departments and staff including Congressional staff in house and senate, arrest and seize assets of Soros and others like him for creating chaos and evil, stop the military industry war killing machine regarding fomented wars, arrest fauci and all others for covid tyranny, repeal biologic bill, sue the media for lying propaganda and incitement, demolish dei, esg, climate propaganda, expose Blackrock, state street. Vanguard at every turn, disbar all attorneys and judges for corruption, go after the human trafficking and pedophiles in high places, etc

Expand full comment
founding

Trying to do everything at once will likely result in nothing getting done. The key to Presidential success is to focus on 3-4 important issues in the first 15 months of the administration. Any more and it all grinds to a halt. I explain why in this article:

https://frompovertytoprogress.substack.com/p/priorities-for-the-second-trump-administration

Expand full comment

What's he going to do the rest of the week?

Expand full comment

I trust Trump's picks. I am going with them all. I don't believe accusations by main media until proven. They make up shit like the Russia hoax and Russia laptop. I believe in Musk and Vivek. For now feel relief for a change after the elections. We will see. Couldn't be worse than the last 4 years.

Expand full comment

I agree. Anyone can say anything, and given what’s happened the last few years I’m tending to not believe anything until there’s proof that stands up in court.

Expand full comment

It is worth noting that DOGE would only be an advisory committee and any attempts to dismantle the federal government would inevitably immediately collide with its lack of actual authority, lawsuits, etc.

Expand full comment
author

For sure, that’s the exact question I’m going to be working on in the coming months. Promises are one thing; results are less certain.

Expand full comment
founding

You’re working on DOGE??? That’s exciting. Can you say more?

Expand full comment
22 hrs agoLiked by Catherine Maxwell

I go on what the great Rush Limbaugh said - “Whatever they accuse you of is exactly what they are doing.” I miss him terribly.

Expand full comment

Swedish proverb: Best place to find a helping hand is the end of your own arm. I finally heard myself asking why no one was doing anything...so I ran for red precinct chair two terms ago. Joined the grass roots MAGA efforts and haven't been disappointed. The idiot Dems have nothing new up their sleeves (so far) and the rest of us are worn thin with the the sex scandals and bullshit. Wash, rinse repeat. Just too tired of it all. Need to engage as many on the ground as possible...ground swell of us deplorables.

Expand full comment
author

Yes, it's important for people to get involved at a local level especially. I'm optimistic that a lot's gonna get cleaned up in DC over the next four years, but national change will happen when everyday Americans get involved.

Expand full comment

The swamp is aptly named. To get anything done in DC you need people to sponsor, grease, and lobby. All that activity results in you being owned. Trump is fighting the good fight, however he'll have the Deep State and all the owned politicians sniping at him every chance they get.

There's a solution - stop worrying about party and start thinking Conservative or Liberal (real liberals, not the current commie version) and if any person of any party goes against the program, vote them out. Conservatives and Liberals provide a tension, a balance in the way the government works. With single party rule you get an echo chamber. And we should never forget how we were treated for the last 4 years.

This isn't a two week project, it is intergenerational. Insure your kids are politically aware as well, because they'll be taking over the fight.

We can win this, however we have to have the long view to keep momentum.

Expand full comment