Comedian Henny Youngman. He died in 1998. (via Wikipedia)
Democrats regularly say three things that set my teeth on edge. It’s an ingrained cultural tic, I guess, and they recite them like the catechism without thinking.
First, they complain that conservative voters, particularly rural ones, vote against their best interests. See “Thank you for not voting your best interests” for what I think about that.
Second, they insist that every election is the most important of our lifetime. They seem to think this alarmist message is somehow motivating for their base. But is it? Really? When every damned election is the most important election of our lifetime, what happens instead is Democrats go into a defensive crouch. Innovation is off the table. They take no chances. Find another gear? Hell, no. For most campaigns, their idea of finding another gear is to do what they’ve always done, the way they’ve always done it, just more of it. That’s a dinosaur’s recipe for losing.
Finally — and I heard this again at an event last night — Democrats of a certain age love to joke that you should vote early and vote often. IN THIS POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT, they still say that. It’s the tired (and tasteless) political equivalent of Henny Youngman’s “Take my wife — Please!” Said tongue-in-cheek, the expression is variously attributed to corrupt Chicago politicians from a hundred years ago, but likely dates from earlier. Just stop.
Friends may get tired of hearing me say it’s a challenge to teach yellow dogs new tricks, but it’s true.
“If you smell what the Rock is cooking,” so to speak, it’s long been clear that MAGAstan is more about posturing than policy. It’s about Trumpish attitude aided and abetted by his fans’ poor short-term memory. Donald Trump can say one thing on Monday and the opposite on Friday and fans couldn’t care less. Just as long as whatever he says is delivered loudly and proudly with the same shameless, in-your-face insincerity. Wrestling fans eat that shit up. They pay good money for it week after week. It’s not Sondheim or Shakespeare, but it’s theater.
Digby yesterday mentioned the “stale sameness” of the Trump rally and “the weird hypnotic nature of his speeches.” But it’s that sameness that mesmerizes, like endless Grateful Dead improvs, like the old Latin mass and Gregorian chants. People can lose themselves for a while in the rhythms and harmonies before returning to the real world. The attraction of sameness, of pithy catchphrases, of the anticipation of the all-too-familiar you know is coming, is something the left, with its demand for novelty, has never appreciated. As Anat Shenker-Osorio says, repetition is important. And so is repetition.
Donald Trump’s problem now is the novelty of not being in control. In a courtroom, he’s not in charge. His accustomed delaying tactics are failing him. His raging won’t be tolerated. He’s sweating. He’s flailing. He’s all over the place on abortion now that it’s clear the backlash from this week’s Arizona ruling threatens his reelection, the reelection he was counting on to keep him from ending his life in the slammer.
Behold. He’s backpedaling as fast as he can.
After record enrollment, Trump finally figured out how popular the ACA is. He now says he never wanted to end Obamacare, he just wants to make it better.
If you believe that, you probably also believe a former president can declassify documents just by thinking about it. pic.twitter.com/ObuGpcOzhn
A majority of U.S. voters consider the criminal charges in New York related to a hush money payment against former President Trump to be serious, per new polling.
Trump is days away from the start of the first trial out of thefour criminal cases against him, while electioneering for the presidency.
The New York trial, set to start on April 15 with jury selection, concerns a 2016 payment allegedly made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.
About 4 in 10 Republican respondents considered the hush money charges to be serious.
Two-thirds of independents also deemed the charges serious.
64% of registered voters described the charges as at least “somewhat serious,” according to Reuters/Ipsos poll data published Wednesday.
34% said the charges lacked seriousness.
The rest were unsure or didn’t answer.
Appeals courts twice this week deniedattempts from Trump’s legal team to delay the start of the trial.
Trump’s legal teamhas employed delay tactics in proceedings across the four jurisdictions where he faces criminal charges — and it’s currently not clear whether the three other cases will go to trial before the election.
Voters, already disillusioned with their candidate options in the 2024 election, considered charges in the other ongoing cases more serious, per Reuters/Ipsos.
About 74% of respondents said the charges of election fraud in Georgia against Trump were serious.
Does this guarantee that the trial will move numbers away from Trump? Not necessarily. But I think an awful lot of people have concluded that Trump will never have to face a jury for his criminal offenses and yet here he is. It may make some of them think a little bit. Maybe.
President Biden’s campaign on Thursday launched a seven-figure ad buy in Arizona, focusing on abortion on as the state grapples with the fallout from a state Supreme Court decision earlier this week that enabled an 1864 law that bans nearly all abortions.
The Biden campaign has sought to link former President Donald Trump to near-total abortion bans since Trump appointed three conservative judges who were instrumental in the 2022 Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. Trump has touted his role in the effort to “kill” Roe v. Wade, although he has sought to distance himself from the Arizona decision.
“Because of Donald Trump, millions of women lost the fundamental freedom to control their own bodies,” Mr. Biden says direct to camera in the ad. “And now, women’s lives are in danger because of that. The question is, if Donald Trump gets back in power, what freedom will you lose next? Your body and your decisions belong to you, not the government, not Donald Trump. I will fight like hell to get your freedom back.”
EVERY. SINGLE. EVENT. has been exactly the same, every single time, for 18 months. Fast food restaurant-Speech-Cops on Tarmac. Just like his interviews, speeches, and clothes – the same thing every time, over and over and over. pic.twitter.com/uKRcuWEda4
I have often wondered about this. There really is a stale sameness about Trump aesthetics and I wondered why more people just don’t get sick of seeing it. He’s been doing this since 2016, down to the same suit and tie and many of the same lines. It seems to me that it should be hitting the point that it’s a nostalgia act for a one hit wonder.
But that’s just looking at it from a normal person’s standpoint. The MAGA cult is built on relentless repetition (indoctrination) and any deviation from that familiar cant is going to cause dissonance. These repetitive mantras, slogans and chants, the sameness of the events, Trump dressed exactly the same, the weird hypnotic nature of his speeches (which are now set to music) are what gives MAGA its power.
I guess my bigger question is, to the extent there are any normal Republicans left, why aren’t they tired of it and loathe to sign on for four more years of it? Even more pertinent, why aren’t they creeped out by it? This whole thing is becoming more and more ritualized and devotional. Do they relate to this? I guess many of them don’t take this stuff seriously but they’re going to find out just how serious it is if Trump pulls this off.
I know it’s somewhat trite to evoke the rise of fascism in the 1930s but there have been many books written about the power of the Nazi aesthetic and how it worked on the citizenry. There were many people at the time who thought it was ridiculous but it was actually an intrinsic part of its appeal so I don’t think we should underrate that in this case just because the clothing is so silly or the leader isn’t wearing a military uniform. This is 21st century America and Trump’s aesthetic is powerful to a whole lot of people.
Steve Bannon no doubt thought he was being deviously clever. Speaking with The New York Times this week, he elaborated on a sophisticated plan that Donald Trump’s allies have developed for boosting third-party candidates, so they siphon votes from President Biden.
A key part of this scheme, Bannon noted, entails boosting expected Green Party candidate Jill Stein by highlighting oil production under Biden to pull environmentally concerned voters away from him. As Bannon put it:
No Republican knows that oil production under Biden is higher than ever. But Jill Stein’s people do. … Stein is furious about the oil drilling. The college kids are furious about it. The more exposure these [third-party candidates] get, the better it is for us.
Whoa, that’s some serious 11-dimensional chess, Steve! Except for one thing. If you think for a second about Bannon’s quote—that “oil production under Biden is higher than ever”—it entirely undermines one of Trump’s biggest lies: the claim that Biden’s effort to transition the United States to a decarbonized economy has destroyed the nation’s “energy independence,” leaving us weak and hollow to our very core.
This saga captures something essential about how MAGA-world fights the information wars. You’ll note that Bannon is not even slightly troubled by the idea that telling the truth about Biden’s record to one set of voters—left-leaning, green-minded ones—might contradict one of Trump’s most frequent lies to countless others.
It isn’t just that for Bannon, assertions should be evaluated purely for their instrumental usefulness. It’s also that he apparently has total confidence that voters who really need to hear the truth he uttered—those in the industrial and Appalachian heartlands who are the targets of Trump’s propaganda—never, ever will, even if he admits to it right in the paper of record.
And he knows that if they do hear it, they will dismiss it as fake news because they’ve been indoctrinated by Donald Trump into believing that anything that contradicts or challenges their worldview is by definition, fake.
“Just stick with us, don’t believe the crap you see from these people, the fake news,” Mr Trump said as the crowd erupted in boos. He later added: “Just remember, what you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening…” https://t.co/DPyaAjFbWM
It’s a lesson drawn from demagogues around the world: When the press as an institution is weakened, fact-based journalism becomes just one more drop in the daily deluge of content—no more or less credible than partisan propaganda. Relativism is the real goal of Trump’s assault on the press, and the more “enemies of the people” his allies can take out along the way, the better. “A culture war is a war,” Steve Bannon told the Times last year. “There are casualties in war.”
This attitude has permeated the president’s base. At rallies, people wear T-shirts that read rope. tree. journalist. some assembly required. A CBS News/YouGov poll has found that just 11 percent of strong Trump supporters trust the mainstream media—while 91 percent turn to the president for “accurate information.” This dynamic makes it all but impossible for the press to hold the president accountable, something Trump himself seems to understand. “Remember,” he told a crowd in 2018, “what you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening.”
Moreover, the MAGA people don’t care if it’s true or not. They love Trump even if they know he’s lying and they hate everyone else even if they know they’re telling the truth. It’s not about facts, truth or reality with these people.
But that isn’t the only issue. I wish I had faith that lefties wouldn’t take the bait on this and would look at the big picture but they won’t. We’ve seen this time and again and we have other candidates to fill this role beyond Jill Stein. As you know, Bannon’s the one who pushed RFK Jr into the race too.
It won’t take much to throw the election to Trump in those swing states. 2000 and 2016 are two perfect examples of how well this strategy can work. Bannon’s not reinventing the wheel here.
Back in 2022, when it looked as if the Supreme Court would soon overturn Roe v. Wade, Senate Republicans’ campaign arm sent out a memo encouraging GOP candidates to get their messaging right.
The former president on Wednesday responded to the Arizona Supreme Court’s reviving a harsh 1864 abortion ban — which indeed threatens abortion providers with two to five years in prison — by punting on this basic issue.
Asked whether doctors who provide abortions should be punished, Trump allowed that certain states could do that.
“I’d let that be to the states,” Trump said. “You know, everything we’re doing now is states and states’ rights. And what we wanted to do is get it back to the states, because for 53 years it’s been a fight. And now the states are handling it. And some have handled it very well, and the others will end up handling it very well.
Making 10 year old girls give birth to their brother? Don’t ask me, it’s up to the states. Denying pregnant women emergency medical care because a legislature is scientifically illiterate? What can I say? It’s up to them. Burning women agt the stake? Hey, this is a state matter, it has nothing to do with me.
He obviously thinks he’s off the hook with this “I’m proud to have overturned Roe vs Wade and now it’s up to the states, buh bye” routine but it’s not going to fly. His proud Roe moment is what led to these atrocities in states around the country and simply shrugging his shoulders and saying it’s not his problem isn’t going to solve it.
President Biden has announced an order forgiving more student loans. It hasn’t been easy since the right wing Supremes knocked down his big initiative, but they’ve kept at it, chipping away, bringing relief to many people’s debt burden. They say they aren’t done yet.
The wingnuts are having their usual fit about anything that might benefit people other than the rich and the fascist, caterwauling that it’s not fair to other Americans who didn’t take out loans or who paid them back already. Why shouldn’t they get a break too?
Guess what?
They’re special people who deserve it, we know that. The American people should be proud to subsidize them — they’re all millionaires, of course. Those scofflaws who haven’t paid back their student loans need to be taught a lesson.
it does not matter how many times he has been caught not telling the truth, Trump can always count on the press to carry his water. https://t.co/T5mdw6QVqQ
Arizona Republicans refused to vote on a bill to repeal the state’s extreme abortion ban Wednesday, a day after Republicans—including President Donald Trump—attempted to distance themselves from the decision.
State Rep. Matt Gress (R) moved Wednesday to bring a Democratic bill repealing the ban, which outlaws all abortions except to save the life of the mother, to a House vote. Before a vote could be called, Rep. David Livingston motioned for a recess and all Republicans in the House—including Gress—voted to table the proceedings.
Democrats in the House chanted “Shame!” at their Republican counterparts as voting rapidly came to a close.
In a livestream after the session ended, Rep. Analise Ortiz (D) said Republicans moved to recess so they “would not have to be on the record voting to repeal the abortion ban.”
Looks like Donald Trump picked the wrong week to quit snorting Adderall (ABC News):
There are multiple Jeremy Rosenbergs in New York City, as former President Donald Trump’s attorneys found out Tuesday after they sent a subpoena to the wrong one.
Last month, Trump’s attorneys in his criminal hush money case [Ed: falsifying business records, to be correct] in Manhattan sought to subpoena the Jeremy Rosenberg who was a supervising investigator in the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
Instead, according to court filings revealed Tuesday, the subpoena went to another Jeremy Rosenberg living in an $8 million Brooklyn home.
A crack team of attorneys Trump has there, and I mean that crack. It’s led by one Todd Blanche.
“I don’t have any files for you,” the apparently bemused Brooklynite wrote back, according to a filing from the former president’s legal team.
He added: “PS – The phone number you provided was disconnected.
“PPS – I’m keeping the fifteen dollars,” he added, referencing the money Mr Trump’s lawyers had sent him to help pay for sending the documents.
(I once got onto the chain-mail list of a Republican state senator(?) from Alabama. She only relented after I wrote back that, no, I couldn’t send her that chicken recipe she liked so much. I was not the Tom Sullivan she thought I was. Former Colorado governor, John Hickenlooper, called me by accident twice in a week in September 2019 thinking I was Colorado state Rep. Tom Sullivan. It happens.)
Still, Trump’s attorneys were clueless even after that snarky reply:
Mr Blanche had complained earlier this week that the man that he believed the former investigator Mr Rosenberg had displayed a “flippant and dismissive approach” to his subpoena “despite ample experience with the criminal justice system that should have instilled in him respect for this process and a criminal defendant’s rights”.
But in fact, Mr Trump’s lawyers had simply served court papers on the wrong man, prosecutor Matthew Colangelo wrote.
“The people believe the defendant has served the incorrect person,” Mr Colangelo said in a court filing.
Give Donald Trump the nuclear codes and he’ll attack the wrong country.
