That’s how Trump characterized his VP search on a radio show today. He was lying about it being highly sophisticated but it is very much like the Apprentice which Trump thinks is what politics is all about.
The news is all over the choice right now. Is it going to be Vance? Well, Don Jr, his most fervent supporter will be speaking right before the announcement at the convention so… On the other hand, Doug Burgum is right out of Central Casting. he looks like he could be on the three dollar bill! And then there’s Li’l Marco who I think everyone knows Trump is just fucking with.
The thing that none of the media is talking about is the fact that Trump is choosing a new VP in the first place? He had one, remember? And he was the most adoring sycophant any narcissistic megalomaniac could ever hope for. Why isn’t he on the ticket again?
Well, we know why, don’t we? And not only isn’t he on the ticket he and most of Trump’s former cabinet are refusing to endorse him. That is the important context within which this exciting “Apprentice VP search is happening. The media should make sure they mention that whenever they talk about it. But they won’t and that’s a problem.
[W]hile the contenders have various pluses and minuses, they share two qualities. They all looked at what happened on January 6 and decided they were still willing to take the VP slot, and they’ve all spent the last several months publicly supplicating to Trump by winking at 2020 election denial and pooh-poohing questions of whether they would accept the results of the 2024 race.
Trump’s coup failed because brave Republicans — Pence above all — were willing to put their loyalty to the Constitution over their personal loyalty to Trump. By definition, anyone who wants to be his vice president today is saying they would make a different choice. Journalists should keep those stakes front and center as they cover Trump’s running mate pick.
That’s a big part of the story. It’s even interesting and exciting. Why won’t the media tell it?
Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-WI) on Thursday accused “the angry feminist movement” of emasculating men and said the U.S. should “work our way back” to 1960 if former President Donald Trump wins in November.
In a House floor speech that could have been lifted from Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale, Grothman went after supporters of government-funded childcare programs and said President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty “took the purpose out of the man’s life, because now you have a basket of goodies for the mom.” He added, “They’ve taken away the purpose of the man to be part of a family. And if we want to get America back to, say, 1960, where this was almost unheard of, we have to fundamentally change these programs.”
Grothman said “the breakdown of the family” was caused by the U.S. government in the 1960s and “people like Angela Davis, well-known communist, people like the feminists who were so important in the 1960s.”
“So I hope the press corps picks up on this, and I hope Republican and Democrat leadership put together some sort of plan for January, in which we work our way back to where America was in the 1960s,” he added.
Grothman, a fervent supporter of Trump, hailed the overturning of Roe v. Wadein June 2022, saying after the decision: “Over the years, millions of children have had their dreams stolen before seeing the light of the day. But today marks a brighter future for the hearts and minds of unborn children, women, and families.
“I commend the six justices who voted to overturn Roe for having the courage to base their decision on sound legal principles rather than a fashionable line of thinking that rules academia, Hollywood, and the mainstream media.”
This is the Trump cult.
I would vote for a pile of fetid garbage if that’s what’s on the ticket against these throwbacks.
Last night Biden questioned the reliability of the polls and he’s not wrong. They’re very weird this year, not necessarily in terms of the close race, which they almost all show, but in the cross tabs which keep featuring weird stuff that doesn’t make sense like Trump only being ahead in single digits among white people while garnering huge numbers among African Americans. I don’t know what the problem is but I’m finding myself very skeptical that we’re getting a real look at the state of the race from public polling.
Anyway, yesterday the Washington Post/ABC Ipsos poll had Biden at 42% and Trump at 43%, essentially tied. Here’s another respected poll the NPR Marist poll today:
With just days to go before the start of the Republican National Convention, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump continue to be closely matched among registered voters in both a head-to-head matchup and a multicandidate field.
It too has weird cross tabs so I don’t know what to think. I dis find this interesting, however:
Americans are overwhelmingly more concerned about a president who plays fast and loose with the facts than someone who is too old to serve. Nearly seven in ten Americans (68%) think it is more concerning if a president does not tell the truth. Nearly one in three (32%) think it is more concerning if someone is too old to serve. Democrats (85%), independents (66%), and a slim majority of Republicans (51%) agree that dishonesty is of greater concern over advanced age.
If that was true, you would think Biden would win in a landslide. But you have to consider that many Republicans have been brainwashed to believe that Trump is an innocent truth-teller while Biden and his “crime family” are inveterate liars. Still, it’s interesting that so many people in both parties still at least pay lip service to the idea that honesty is important. (Note that only 51% of GOP voters believe that which indicates that at least half of them know that Trump is a lying sack of shit.)
Here are a few more interesting, if confounding findings:
Majority Believes Biden Has the Character to be President, Trump Falls Short
52% of Americans think Biden has the character to serve as president. 47% disagree. 50% of independents and just 10% of Democrats question Biden’s character to serve as president.
A majority of Americans (56%), including 18% of Republicans and 58% of independents, do not think Trump has the character to be President of the United States.
Biden Viewed as Lacking the Mental Fitness to Serve, Americans Divide About Trump
Nearly two in three Americans (64%), including 38% of Democrats and 35% of Biden supporters, do not think Biden has the mental fitness to serve as president. 68% of independents say the same.
Americans divide (50% mentally fit to 49% mentally unfit) about Trump’s mental acuity.
Nearly Six in Ten Think Trump will Win
Regardless of whom they plan to support, 59% of Americans think Trump will win this year’s presidential election. Most Republicans (93%) and a majority of independents (58%) think Trump will be victorious. Even 24% of Democrats and 22% of Biden supporters think Trump will win.
Neither Trump nor Biden Should be on the Ballot, Say Majorities
A majority of Americans (56%) do not think that Biden should be the Democratic candidate this year. A similar proportion of Americans (54%) do not think Trump should be the Republican nominee. However, Democrats (40%) are more likely to say that Biden should not be the Democratic candidate than Republicans (13%) are to say that Trump should not be the GOP nominee.
Biden and Trump Favorable Ratings Remain Upside Down
A majority of Americans (51%) have an unfavorable view of Biden, and 43% have a favorable one. Trump’s ratings are similar. 53% have a negative impression of Trump, and 43% have a positive one. Biden and Trump’s favorable ratings are little changed from last month.
Biden’s job approval rating is little changed at 43%. Last month, 41% of Americans approved of how Biden was doing his job. 52% disapprove, and 5% are unsure. One in four residents (25%) strongly approve of Biden’s job performance, and 40% strongly disapprove.
Newsom, Harris, Whitmer Match or Underperform Biden Against Trump
If Biden decides to drop out of the presidential contest, other potential Democratic candidates do not improve the Democrats chances against Trump.
Harris receives support from 50% of registered voters to 49% for Trump.
Newsom garners 50% to 48% for Trump.
Whitmer receives 49% of the vote to 49% for Trump.
Among independents, Trump receives majority support against Harris and Whitmer. Independents divide when asked to choose between Trump and Newsom.
You’ll note that the alternative Democrats are getting about the same as Biden which supports my theory that this election is a battle of coalitions, not a battle of two men (although the fascist coalition is also a personality cult.) More on that later.
I’m not sure that Joe Biden has to go — or stay, at least based on the polls. If I lean toward him going, it’s based upon my observation that the press is so invested in his dropping out that they will make it a lot harder for him to win and in a close race that could make the difference. That’s assuming they wouldn’t do the same to Harris, who some in the media are already accusing of orchestrating a cover-up of Biden’s health because she has been vouching for him. I’m not sure anyone can overcome the press pack because its discovered something that has them very excited:
I’m afraid so. And they’re so overstimulated right now that they may very well chase the dragon and treat Harris the same way.
Well, Joe Biden does, but who cares what he says, right?
President Joe Biden held an hour long press conference last night and answered a range of questions about his age, his competence, his stamina, his health and his future. He also delivered several incisive disquisitions on foreign policy that Donald Trump’s staff would have to use a very large coloring book and possibly a puppet show to explain to him. Not that that would work. He’d probably storm out of the meeting long before they got to the part about China and Russia, yelling something about love letters and being a boss.
The media didn’t seem all that impressed, judging his performance to only be fair to middling and virtually ignoring the substance of what he had to say. He offered a serious overview of America and its relationship to its allies and adversaries and made some news about Israel, calling for the war to end. But everyone was more interested in Biden’s theatrical performance and how he answered questions about whether he plans to quit so any talk of his actual policies and worldview are apparently irrelevant.
Biden’s criticized a lot for failing to effectively communicate his administration’s accomplishments and there’s something in that. He’s not good at it the way someone like Bill Clinton was, with his ability to rattle off facts and figures while simultaneously explaining how it’s good for average Americans, is. It’s a special skill. (Donald Trump touts his economic record but it’s all lies, which isn’t the same thing. Just saying “we had the greatest economy the world has ever known” takes no skill — just chutzpah.)
At the press conference Biden did make some comments about his economic accomplishments, however, although nobody seemed to care:
Biden: This morning we had a great economic report showing inflation is down. Overall prices fell last month. Core inflation is the lowest it's been in three years. Prices are falling for cars, appliances, and air fares. Grocery prices have fallen since the start of the year. pic.twitter.com/EyYFITQZXc
With all the concern about inflation, you’d think this week’s news that the Consumer Price Index declined again in June , beating economist’s expectation would be worth a question or two but it’s long been clear that the press isn’t particularly interested in good economic news. If they were, they’d be reporting on the Biden administration’s exceptional economic recovery policies which dealt with a very bizarre and unprecedented economic crisis caused by the pandemic. June was the first time since May 2020 that monthly headline CPI came in negative and also the slowest annual gain in prices since March 2021.
The markets have noticed all this and rewarded investors and owners of 401ks and IRAs with a banner year. Trump, who predicted a stock market crash if Biden became president, says that the bull run on Wall Street is because traders are anticipating his return to the White House. And, yes, once again he’s predicting a crash if he isn’t.
Yesterday, the government also reported that the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits fell again last week and remain at healthy levels. The jobs story is incredible and as someone who has heard politicians screaming “jobs, jobs, jobs!” in every election I can remember it’s unfathomable to me that this issue appears to have absolutely no salience in this one. It is the best job market since the 1960s, largely due to the Biden administration policies, which we know because the U.S. economic performance is the best in the world.
The World Bank upgraded its outlook for the global economy Tuesday, estimating that it will expand 2.6% this year on the strength of sustained growth in the United States…
Stronger-than-expected growth in the United States — the world’s biggest economy — accounted for 80% of the World Bank’s upgraded outlook. The agency now expects the U.S. economy to expand 2.5% in 2024, the same as in 2023 but up sharply from the 1.6% the bank had predicted in January. “U.S. growth is exceptional,’’ Ayhan Kose, the bank’s deputy chief economist, told The Associated Press ahead of the release of its latest Global Economic Prospects report.
There was a time that such news would be heralded as “morning in America” but according to polling, a majority of voters believe that Trump would be a better steward of the economy than Joe Biden which is, as he would say, malarky. By virtually all measures, Biden’s economic performance has surpassed Trump’s even before the pandemic.
When it comes to jobs, Biden’s done far better than Trump. Even excluding Covid losses and recoveries, Biden’s average job growth significantly exceeds Trump’s. @Morning_Joepic.twitter.com/D2K5pmo36s
Biden has supported and strengthened unions which are having something of a renaissance with big wins in the last couple of years. And astonishingly, this economy has benefited lower wage workers more than the 1%. Axios reported yesterday this amazing statistic:
Just 13% of workers in the U.S. are now earning less than $15 an hour; two years ago, that number was 31.9%, per new data from Oxfam.
As for the GOP’s most sacred shibboleth, the budget deficit, Trump added $4.8 trillion in non-Covid related debt while with a similar adjustment, Biden has added $2.2 trillion. Extending Trump’s tax cuts as he plans to do will add another $3.9 trillion. Not that they care. The deficit is just a weapon which Republicans use to try to cut Social Security and Medicare, which Trump insists he will protect but whose budgets attempted to cut every year he was in office.
Biden’s economic performance has been exceptional. As MSNBC’s Chris Hayes and The Atlantic’s James Fallows both posted yesterday on the unemployment and inflation numbers:
Correct.
I have been around to see a lot more of US history and of administrations' management of the macro-economy than @ChrislHayes has.
If we were living in a normal world this would be more important than any other issue in this election. Joe Biden’s administration has been incredibly successful at steering the economy away from recession and into prosperity the likes of which we haven’t seen in half a century. And Trump is planning to destroy it. As USA Today reports:
“Biden’s policies are better for the economy,” says Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics. “They lead to more growth and less inflation.” According to a Moody’s study, Trump’s plan would trigger a recession by mid-2025 and an economy that grows an average 1.3% annually during his four-year term vs. 2.1% under Biden. (The latter is in line with average growth in the decade before the pandemic.)
Next year, under a Trump administration, inflation would rise from the current 3.3% to 3.6%, well above the 2.4% forecast under Biden, the Moody’s analysis shows. Compared with Biden, the U.S. would have 3.2 million fewer jobs and a 4.5% unemployment rate, a half percentage point higher, at the end of a Trump tenure […]
The consequences of allowing Trump to take over with his daft tariffs and Project 2025 wrecking ball will be the dumbest thing this country has ever done.
I sincerely doubt that the American people really want this. But as of now, they don’t really know about it. Regardless of whether Biden remains at the top of the ticket, the Democratic Party needs to calm down and start delivering the message that Trump is planning to kill the golden goose and serve it for dinner at Mar-a-Lago.
Trump is as frightened of the damage Project 2025 can do to his campaign as he is to appearing in public without a pound of make-up. It’s a glaring tell.
Your opponent often reveals what they think is their greatest vulnerability.
Unearthed video: The director of Project 2025 told a right-wing podcast last year that his group has a “great” relationship with former President Donald Trump, and “Trump's very bought in with this” https://t.co/NLpwYS5dvQpic.twitter.com/q65ggIi1Uu
On Monday afternoon, a few blocks from the White House, conservative legal scholars discussed how to strike back against Donald Trump’s enemies. These subversives, they said, had waged “lawfare” against the Republican nominee, thrown out 2020 election challenges, and blocked scrutiny of a Biden administration that might be gone in six months. What could conservatives do about that, if they won back power?
“We’ve got to start impeaching these judges for acting in such an unbelievably partisan way from the bench,” said John Eastman, a California attorney who was disbarred last year over working with Trump to challenge the 2020 election.
“People who have used this tool against people like John or President Trump have to be prosecuted by Republican or conservative DAs in exactly the same way, for exactly the same kinds of things, until they stop,” said Berkeley Law professor John Yoo.
“I don’t say that we should be the mafia,” said Will Chamberlain, a senior counsel at the Article III Project who’d formerly worked for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. “But as a political party, if we aren’t willing to dish anything out, then we can just expect to keep taking it.”
The debate in Atlanta had thrown Democrats into a party-wide panic — and made Republicans more confident than ever of a Trump restoration. And that mood permeated the National Conservatism conference, organized by movement thinkers whose populist politics were brought from the fringe to the White House in 2016.
The MAGA thinkers, policy entrepreneurs, and conservative activists who gathered on Monday were over the moon about Trump’s odds of victory and completely unbothered by Trump’s recent efforts to distance himself from their agenda. They expected to return to power soon, assume influential positions in the administration, and use the federal government to punish their political enemies as harshly as their interpretation of the law would allow.
I know you know it will be bad. But it will actually be worse than we are already imagining.
Democrats are in crisis at the moment, divided over whether President Biden should stay in the race after his disastrous debate last month or clear the way for another, younger candidate.
Biden’s shaky performance raised concerns about whether he can win in November, and prompted calls from prominent Democrats, columnists and others for him to step aside. It’s up to the Democratic Party to sort this out. But it’s time to refocus attention on the only candidate in the race who is patently unfit for office — any office — and an imminent threat to democracy: Donald Trump.
It’s unbelievable that the nation is spending so much time on the question of Biden’s verbal acuity, when the greatest concern ought to be that his challenger is a self-aggrandizing felon and twice-impeached election-denier. Trump fomented the Jan. 6 insurrection, shows contempt for the rule of law and shamelessly lies in pursuit of more power. He’s an authoritarian who admires murderous despots, wants to jail his political enemies and has publicly flirted with declaring himself a dictator on his first day back in office.
With fervent support from the Republican Party, he peddles cruelty, racism and misogyny, demonizing immigrants as “poisoning the blood of our country,” demeaning women‘s looks and intelligence, and using disgustingly fascist language to criticize his opponents as “vermin.” He’s a man who lied about his wealth for years to cheat on his taxes, whose business was convicted of criminal tax fraud, and who’s been denounced by many former aides and Cabinet members as a “malignant narcissist” who recklessly puts himself before the American people.
Trump is the only man in the presidential race manifestly unworthy of holding a position of power, and has no business ever returning to the White House. If the GOP had any decency left, its members would be discussing whether to dump Trump for a candidate who isn’t out to bulldoze democratic institutions in favor of autocracy.
Voters should resist viewing this contest through the politics-as-usual lens of past elections. This November is not about dueling personalities, middle-of-the-road policy differences, or as some might see it, an 81-year-old man being the lesser of two evils compared with a 78-year-old man. It’s nothing short of a referendum on our 248-year democracy, and a choice between a trustworthy public servant who upholds American values and a serial liar who wants to push the country into authoritarianism.
Leaders of the Democratic Party have to stop the self-defeating discussion about Biden’s fitness and decide whether to replace him or unify behind him. And Americans must start hearing more about how the records, positions and character of Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and any of the prominent Democrats being floated as possible replacements make them all unquestionably superior to Trump.
Agree with this 100%.
As I have written many times now, I think this election is structural — the fascists vs the anti-fascists — so all things being equal I’m not sure there’s a huge advantage for any Democratic candidates over Biden. However, the media is so feral in their denunciations of Biden, and they won’t stop no matter what, that I really wonder if it’s worth it. Harris has her own problems to overcome but with the right defaulting to crude racism and misogyny there’s a possibility that they’ll overplay their hands and actually push the media toward her. (I’m not holding my breath — remember “butheremails.”) Still, they tend to swing back a little bit when they’ve made asses of themselves as they are doing now, so it’s at least possible.
The NYT detailing 90 reporters onto the Biden deathwatch reveals yet another American civic institition in its glaring failure to stand up to the stress test of imminent fascism. Alas, it falls into agenda-setting elite political journalists’ narcissicism sweet spot: it makes themselves the center of the universe, while denying they have any political agency at all…
…Also, lets them preen in their version of virtue, which is “balancing” all the bad stuff they had to say about the GOP.
Akin to how they puffed up and domesticated the Tea Party, to “balance” the way they puffed up Obama.
#infernaltriangle
…oh, and, bottom line, they’re all so jacked up over the prospect of a ten-way contest of Boar on the Floor. (The Peter Bakers are, yes, the Logan Roy in this scenario.)
If you are unfamiliar with Boar on the Floor it’s from the show Succession. The patriarch and chairman of the company stages the game at a company retreat, Logan Roy, pits the potential successors to his company and fortune against each other:
The rules of the game are simple: you pick your emotionally weakest dinner guests, and force them to them crawl around on the ground making pig noises while you throw sausages at them and chant: “Boar on the floor”. It’s both a power move and a Guantanamo-level act of total humiliation.
Perlstein is exactly right. The Big Foot media are dying for an open convention where they can watch a Democratic shit show — and blame Biden and the administration for being losers.
Those of us who were born and raised during the cold war (and in a popular culture still steeped in WWII iconography) probably all know the in our bones that it’s a bad idea to just break up the NATO alliance and just leave them on their own after depending on the US for 75 years, especially since Russia appears to be very thirsty at the moment.
It’s very possible this is going to happen under Trump and it is dangerous:
Donald Trump is considering a reduction in intelligence sharing with members of NATO, which depends on the U.S. for the type of information that has helped Ukraine fend off Russia, according to foreign officials informed of the plans.
Trump advisers have told allied countries the reduced intel sharing would be part of a broader plan to scale back U.S. support and cooperation with the 32-nation alliance, according to three European officials and a senior NATO official, who were granted anonymity to discuss internal discussions.
The officials said they learned about the proposal to curb intelligence-sharing during discussions with Trump advisers about broader plans to reduce U.S. involvement with NATO. The former president repeatedly questioned and sought to undercut the alliance during his first term in office.
The curtailment of intel could have dire security consequences, especially for Ukraine as it tries to repel the Russian invasion.
“It’s the American intelligence that helped convince a lot of NATO countries that Putin was resolved to invade Ukraine,” one European official said. “Some countries didn’t believe Russia had the capabilities to carry out a successful military campaign.”
Asked for comment, a spokesperson from the Trump campaign did not respond directly, instead referring to a statement on TruthSocial that the former president “will restore peace and rebuild American strength and deterrence on the world stage.”
Trump isn’t required to say anything coherent about any of this, we know that. Only Democrats have to be conversant in the details of foreign policy and communicate about them clearly. Apparently, he’s immune from everything.
This is important stuff. I don’t know if people really realize what all this is adding up to: an arms race. If you can’t count on the US to defend under Article 5, and you have morons like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Donald Trump refusing to help with weapons, that’s what you get. And it won’t just be conventional weapons.
Also this:
Folks, Trump will NOT be isolationist if he gets back into power. He is part of the autocratic network and his job within that network is to neutralize America as a deterrent to autocratic imperialism and lead the country into ruin. https://t.co/MP0ETHoVHz
Breaking exclusive: The US and Germany foiled a Russian plot to assassinate the chief executive of the powerful German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall, which has been producing shells and equipment for Ukraine. with @KatieBoLillis@fpleitgenCNNhttps://t.co/gKqRrQ8RSL
