Here’s another total waste of time that will do nothing to help them win re-election in November or illustrate anything about the Democrats. It’s just performative nonsense:
The House narrowly cleared defense policy legislation on Friday after Republicans tacked on divisive provisions restricting abortion access, medical treatment for transgender troops and efforts to combat climate change.
Speaker Mike Johnson’s move to permit culture war amendments to the annual National Defense Authorization Act turned a widely bipartisan bill into a measure supported almost entirely by Republicans. The tactic represented a gamble for Johnson, who could have pushed to pass a more bipartisan version with the help of Democrats, but instead catered to a sliver of his right flank.
That gamble ultimately paid off for Johnson as enough Republicans united to win the final vote. But the most conservative parts of the House defense bill stand no chance in the Senate, and the dispute likely won’t be sorted out until after the November elections.
It’s one thing to put up messaging bills to make a point. Both parties do that. But this is blowing up a bipartisan bill on an important issue in order to pander to a bunch of nutcases on the fringe. I guess the quasi-normal Gopers in the House just threw in the towel figuring there’s nothing they can do when these extremists decide to pitch a fit.
Fergawdsakes. I’m sure you’ve heard about the fears of the H5N1 avian flu virus being found in dairy cattle. Well, guess what?
Ever vigilant about stoking fears among their constituents regarding the threat of governmental overreach, Republican leaders, as a form of political strategy, frequently crow about all the things liberals allegedly want to take away from working Americans. The White House is coming for their guns, they say, or perhaps their gas stoves — or even pints of raw milk that have potentially been contaminated with bird flu.
[…]
“There is concern that consumption of unpasteurized milk and products made from unpasteurized milk contaminated with HPAI A(H5N1) virus could transmit HPAI A(H5N1) virus to people; however, the risk of human infection is unknown at this time,” the agency writes.
However, in recent weeks, as the number of bird flu cases have climbed, so have sales of raw milk. This is because numerous Republican public figures have decried what they perceive to be attempts from the government and “Big Milk” to infringe on their right to consume the beverage, regardless of whether it contributes to the human-to-human spread of bird flu. It’s an attitude that closely mimics the party’s approach to the COVID-19 pandemic and the ways in which their members refused to participate in even basic public health and safety measures.
Essentially, for Republicans, it seems like avoiding raw milk is the new masking — and they’re just not going to do it in order to prove a point.
For instance, in April, Infowars host Owen Shroyer called the Food and Drug Administration a “gangster mafia” who wanted to “make raw milk illegal.”
“So, now that more people are going to local farms and farmers markets and consuming raw milk, this angers the FDA,” Shroyer said. “This angers Big Milk. Say, ‘No, you need to pasteurize milk, it’s a lot less healthy for you.’ See, eventually, they’ll just make it illegal. They’ll just make raw milk illegal. That’s what this is all about.”
That same month, as Media Matters reported, right-wing media outlet TheBlaze published an article titled “Blaze News Investigates: The truth about raw milk the government doesn’t want you to know: ‘Close to a perfect food,’” which told readers that “the so-called ‘experts’ are not telling you the full story” and that “unfortunately, the potential benefits of raw dairy are a secret to most Americans.”
Now, the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA is selling a plain white t-shirt emblazoned with a line illustration of a dairy cow. The caption reads: “got raw milk?”
“See, eventually, they’ll just make it illegal. They’ll just make raw milk illegal. That’s what this is all about.”
There’s more at Salon. The throwback states are already putting laws on the books to ensure that people can kill themselves with raw milk. I won’t be surprised to see them mandating it for babies and schools.
Trump’s been making a lot of wild promises lately. All restraints are gone. He’s even bribed the oil companies with vows to remove all regulations if they’ll give him a billion dollars. Dave Weigel took a look at how its landing:
In his four-year presidency, Donald Trump did none of that. In the last few weeks, he’s promised to do all of it — sometimes in front of crowds ready to cheer his new policies, sometimes with interviewers who don’t ask why he flipped. Democrats, already battling voter “Trumpnesia” and warmer feelings about the MAGA years, are now wrestling with out-of-nowhere promises that don’t match up with Trump’s record.
The latest promise, to make tipped wages tax-free, debuted at Trump’s Sunday rally in Las Vegas. “We’re going to do that right away, first thing in office,” said the Republican nominee. “It’s been a point of contention for years and years and years.”
Trump had never endorsed this before, or mentioned it during 2017’s yearlong tax cut debate. The Biden campaign said that Trump’s “wild campaign promise” couldn’t be trusted, and that Democrats wanted to end the tipped minimum wage, a policy with more direct worker benefits, which Republicans opposed.
But on Monday night, Fox News praised Trump’s “tip tax cut” and explained how it could swing the election. On Wednesday, Trump-endorsed Nevada US Senate Sam Brown told NBC News that the “visionary” ex-president had “scooped” him on a proposal he was about to run on himself. By Thursday, Trump was rallying House Republicans for the tax cut, and Senate Republicans were praising a “brilliant idea” that no one had a plan to implement yet.
“I think we should put it on the table,” Sen. John Cornyn told Semafor. “We’re gonna consider everything else, so it might as well be part of it.”
I wonder if they’re putting the 100% tariff replacement for income tax on the table too?
Weigel sees this as a problem for Democrats:
Trump’s breezy willingness to reverse himself was a problem for Democrats in 2016. Polls found that voters saw him as more moderate than Hillary Clinton; he could hit her from the right on abortion and immigration, from the left on trade and criminal justice reform, and from the center on gay rights.
That wasn’t the case in 2020, when Democrats ran against specific, unpopular Trump agenda items — an unsuccessful push to repeal the Affordable Care Act, the passage of polarizing tax cuts.
This cycle has been more of a muddle, shaped by nostalgia for pre-COVID prices and interest rates, and blurred memories of what happened when. A poll conducted for Politico last month found 37% of voters crediting Trump with new infrastructure investments, compared to 40% who credited President Joe Biden, even though the investments famously didn’t happen under Trump.
According to Weigel, some libertarians are giving him the benefit of the doubt over his promise to commute the sentence of the convicted drug dealer mogul and go all in on crypto currency (“I want all bitcoin made in the USA!”)even though he ignored them back when he was president. They blame it on his former staff (“swamp creatures”) and believe he’ll surround himself with people who will do what they want this time.
As one critic points out, “all of his dealings with this are just totally transactional. If it’s in his interest to release them, he’ll release them; if he doesn’t think it’s in his interest, he won’t.”
In other words, his promises don’t mean jack.
Weigel has this to say:
There’s an old Clintonworld assessment of the 2016 election that’s stuck with me for eight years. I’ll paraphrase it: “We built an Italian sports car, and Trump made us take it off road.” There is a tried-and-true populist way that Democrats win national elections, epitomized by the 2012 campaign that portrayed Mitt Romney as a vulture capitalist who’d cut taxes on the rich. Trump’s unpredictability prevented Hillary Clinton from doing that.
Democrats are trying to do that again, with three binders of material — Trump’s record, his promises to rich donors that he’ll cut their taxes, and the Project 2025 portfolio of conservative policies being prepped for a second administration. But there’s a powerful monomyth about Trump, which the Libertarian Party’s chair summed up well. In the first term, he had the wrong advisors; the next President Trump would be unencumbered, and could do anything.
“Don’t worry” they say, “he’ll be free of all those swamp creatures who stopped him from doing what he always wanted to do last time. He’ll get rid of them and good MAGA true believers will carry out his agenda.” Basically, they are saying that he used to be an inept fool whose first term was really just a practice run. Now he knows what he’s doing and he won’t fuck up so much.
As Donald Trump made his first visit to the scene of the crime since the insurrection, the Biden campaign launched a new ad reminding people of that notorious event:
You’d think of all people that members of the United States Congress would be reluctant to welcome the man who sicced a violent mob on them. But no, they greeted him with rapturous applause and even broke into a rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday” and brought out a cake.
The House members were beside themselves. Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene gushed about how “funny” and “sweet” he is in real life and how it’s just so, like, awesome that he mentioned her by name and everything! She hasn’t been this excited since that time she had front row seats for the Back Street Boys back in ’98 and A.J. winked right at her (everybody said so.) She was far from alone.
here's a supercut of Republicans kissing Trump's ass after meeting with him today. big Dear Leader energy. pic.twitter.com/UjZbeGdCp5
Even the Speaker of the House came before the cameras to say what a privilege it was to have Donald Trump tell him how great he is.
Mike Johnson says that during the House GOP meeting with Trump today, Trump "said very complementary things about all of us. We had sustained applause. he said I'm doing a very good job. We're grateful for that." pic.twitter.com/MO29NPtrto
(I’m not sure why Johnson tends to speak in the third person but maybe it has something to do with the fact that he thinks he’s the New Moses or something.)
When the former president met with the Senators, his nemesis, Minority Leader Mitch “Broken Old Crow” McConnell extended his hand in friendship as if Trump had never racially insulted his wife or tried to stage a coup. They had not spoken since December of 2020 but the so-called “gravedigger of democracy” apparently decided to bury what was left of his reputation and personal integrity once and for all.
One GOP Congressman was so excited that he immediately announced that he planned to offer a bill to name all American coastal waters after Donald Trump:
Tomorrow I will introduce legislation to rename our coastal waters after @realDonaldTrump!
President Trump took several commendable actions for our oceans as part of his work to make America strong, secure, and economically prosperous. Renaming our waters will serve as a… pic.twitter.com/Xj4NT3kqDx
— Congressman Greg Steube (@RepGregSteube) June 13, 2024
You might think that’s a very odd thing to propose but considering Trump’s apparent obsession with electric boats, woke sharks and low flow toilets maybe it makes some sense. It’s only a matter of time before they propose to rename the entire country “Trumplandia.”
This pep rally for Donald Trump, as one congressman described it, needless to say featured the usual whining about unfairness, weaponization of the government, persecution etc. One attendee said he went off on lots of tangents .Another source in the room described it as “like talking to your drunk uncle at the family reunion.”
He seems to be quite worried about Taylor Swift possibly endorsing President Biden because he’s mentioned it a few times recently, musing hat she might not really be all that liberal and going on about how beautiful she is as if he has a schoolboy crush. At this meeting he wondered aloud how she could possibly vote for “that dope” Joe Biden, whom she endorsed in 2020. And he shared a bizarre anecdote about Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi’s daughter (whom he called a “wacko”) telling him “if things were different Nancy and I would be perfect together, there’s an age difference though.” (He’s 24 years older than his wife, who is actually younger than Pelosi’s daughter) Speaking on behalf of all of her sisters, Christine Pelosi said it was a lie and that Trump has a “deranged obsession” with Pelosi.
Then Trump insulted Milwaukee, Wisconsin where the GOP is holding their convention next month, calling it a “horrible city.” That’s particularly bad form, even for Trump and GOP members fell all over themselves either denying he ever said it or saying he meant different things by it. Trump cleared the matter up by admitting that he said it essentially because Milwaukee is a crime infested hellscape where they steal elections from him. So that’s nice.
Aside from all the predictable meandering, Trump did make some news on policy. He reportedly said that he believes Ukraine is “never going to be there for us” almost at the same moment that Biden was signing a 10 year bi-lateral security agreement. (Apparently, he’s still smarting from the fact that President Zelensky failed to do his bidding back in 2019.) He railed again Biden’s push to expand electric vehicles calling it “the dumbest thing” and had this to say about the GOP’s problem with abortion:
Roe v Wade, everyone was against it because they wanted it to be decided by the states, there was no 10 weeks, 12 weeks, every person said it’s got to be back to the states. It became a complex issue 10 years ago, everyone wanted it back in the states, and we got it back in the states, sometimes good sometimes not good, some states went one way and some states went a different way. But like Ronald Reagan, you have to have three choices: life of mother, rape and incest you have to do, but you have to follow your own heart. Republicans are so afraid of the issue, we would have had 40 seats.
None of that is true or makes any sense and we can only hope that the entire Republican party follows his lead and babbles as incoherently on the subject.
As we know, Trump only has a few policy ideas, most of which were formulated years ago when he saw something on TV. When it comes to economics it comes down to one thing and one thing only: tariffs. (He has admitted that it came to him when he saw Japanese cars being offloaded from ships back in the 1980s and became convinced that America was being ripped off. )
If you liked the inflation of the last few years, you’re going to love what he’s got in mind now. He’s been saying for some time that he wanted to impose a 10% tariff on all imports. Now his one idea is even bigger. Saying that he’s a big fan of President William McKinley (whom I would bet he’d never heard of until someone mentioned him recently) he told the Senators that he wants to eliminate the income tax and replace it completely with tariffs.
MSNBC’s Chris Hayes explained that “would effectively take us back to the 19th century — the idea makes as much sense as ripping up the entire interstate highway system and replacing it with canals.” According to economist Paul Krugman, this policy would amount to something like a 133% sales tax that would cost the average American family thousands more dollars while giving the richest 1% (of which Trump is a member) a windfall of millions of dollars. As Hayes said, “he is seriously and earnestly running on the most inflationary platform I have ever seen.”
None of this phased the Trump super-fans of the GOP caucus, many of whom know better but applauded everything he said like a bunch of trained seals anyway.
It’s a cliche at this point to evoke the old fable of the Emperor’s New Clothes. But it’s unavoidable in this situation. Donald Trump was manifestly unfit back in 2016 and had a disastrous presidency, failing miserably at the most important crisis he faced. He was thrown out of office by the people, had a massive temper tantrum, incited an insurrection and left office as the worst president in American history. And yet, here he is again, like a zombie risen from the earth, even more unfit than he was before, and the Republican party is giddily worshiping him like he’s Alexander the Great. At this point it’s clear that it isn’t him anymore — it’s them.
It’s important to remember that as crazy as MAGA Republicans are now that the presidential election and the future of the Supreme Court does not hinge on the large numbers of voters chanting Don-ald Trump, Don-ald Trump like zombified extras in The Mummy. Trump is bleeding support he cannot afford to lose. The old, “death by a thousand cuts” routine worked against Hillary Clinton in 2016. It can work for Democrats and Joe Biden in 2024.
Greg Sargent points to an item lost in Politico’s Playbook coverage of Trump’s effort to defund Special Counsel Jack Smith’s Trump prosecutions:
“I don’t think it’s a good idea unless you can show that [the prosecutors] acted in bad faith or fraud or something like that,” Rep. Mike Simpson, a senior appropriator, told Playbook, speaking about the defund-Smith push. He denounced the idea as “stupid,” adding of prosecutors: “They’re just doing their job—even though I disagree with what they did.”
Wait, what? Trump’s prosecutorial tormentors are not acting in bad faith or being fraudulent? Do tell!
Simpson apparently thought he was just rebuffing a tough question, but he also badly undermined a core argument of Trump and his propagandists: that the prosecutions of Trump are wholly illegitimate, exposing the “deep state” as irredeemably corrupt to its very core. Now comes along a top Republican who disagrees with the prosecutions of Trump on their interpretation of the law, but appears to allow that the special counsel’s office is not abusing its institutional role in a way that merits maximal GOP tactics in response, such as defunding it.
This undercuts Republicans’ contention that investigations into Trump are just “deep state” corruption. If they are, what are the investigations Republicans have planned for Democrats under a second Trump administration?
Democrats recognize the importance of this moment. “Mike Simpson just destroyed MAGA-world’s argument that Trump’s prosecution on federal charges is fraudulent or in bad faith,” Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland emailed me. “Like the New York prosecution, it is a bona fide and good-faith criminal prosecution, and the attempt to defund it, like the effort to delegitimize it, is fundamentally stupid.”
“Other Republicans should follow Simpson and stop demonizing the justice system and the rule of law,” Raskin continued, effectively demonstrating how Trump’s criming can be used as a wedge going forward.
Democrats are posting billboards this weekend in Michigan near The People’s Convention, “a kind of off-brand RNC hosted by Turning Point Action.” They’ll brand Trump and his enablers “crooks” just “out for themselves.”
(A social worker who works with former convicts balks at using the phrase “convicted felon” against Trump, similar to immigration activists preferring “undocumented,” a state in which people find themselves, to “illegals,” an identity. But “crooks” may not be as fraught. )
Trump’s convictions put Republicans in a tough position, at least for those not zombified enough to abandon the rule of law for their god-king. Trump is demanding House Republicans find a way (somehow) to reverse his New York state convictions.
What’s telling is that vulnerable House Republicans are balking—privately. As Politico reports, due in part to “skittish swing-district members,” the Speaker is “already finding it difficult to deliver for Trump.”
Indeed, in another sign that Trump’s criminality is becoming a wedge, some Republicans representing swing districts are decidedly uninterested in commenting on Trump’s felony convictions.
Taint, Trump taint, is something even some Republicans now don’t want to get on them. Because “majorities of voters agree with Trump’s convictions and believe he committed serious federal crimes.”
Biden ads reminding voters what Trump instigated on Jan. 6 will place them in the same uncomfortable position. “God or country” won’t work on evangelicals who equate the two. But they may challenge others to choose between the law or Trump.
Are they the law-respecting Americans they tell themselves they are?
Ubu Don visited Washington, D.C. on Thursday to show off his debraining machine, only to find his fawning Republican nobles had already been debrained.
Digby will be along presently with a more thorough account of yesterday’s Capitol Hill follies starring Republicans’ 34-felony-convicted former president and 2024 presumptive nominee. Suffice to say it’s udderly insane the tolerance MAGA Republican “leaders” have developed for self-humiliation. How these adults can live with themselves having sacrificed all self-respect on the altar of Trump is beyond comprehension.
A major political party in the most powerful country on Earth has lost its collective mind. It’s gone from Andy Borowtiz satire to deeply unsettling. The U.S. Constitution may not be a suicide pact, but the Republican Party now is.
Lickspittles and Toadies
Sarah Longwell of Republican Voters Against Trump described how Republicans who once saw Trump as too corrupt, unfit, and uninformed (you fill in the rest) for the presidency have become Trump lickspittles and toadies. He threatened their lives and fomented an insurrection and yet they press near to touch the hem of his garment.
.@SarahLongwell25 on Republicans welcoming Trump back to Capitol Hill:
“Members of Congress who purport to be devout Christians, to back the blue, to stand for the rule of law, they’re there to cheer Trump, who was morally and temperamentally responsible for the insurrection.” pic.twitter.com/dHOQHwNc96
— Republican Voters Against Trump (@AccountableGOP) June 13, 2024
You may not be taking crazy pills, Dear Reader, but Dear Leader’s supplicants have gobbled whole handsful. Hell, I’m embarrased for them.
here's a supercut of Republicans kissing Trump's ass after meeting with him today. big Dear Leader energy. pic.twitter.com/UjZbeGdCp5
You’ve hear by now about Trump’s unhinged, weekend ramble about sharks and sinking electric boats. He’ll soon be telling his rallies about how he once wore an onion on his belt, “which was the style at the time” and no one from his party will blink. (I’m getting dizzy just typing that. They want to hand this blathering idiot the nuclear codes.)
Trump has in the past smeared American cities from coast to coast. But reports from his meeting with the Republican caucus had him calling Milwaukee, where he’ll be nominated next month, “a horrible city.” What kind of idiot does that? The Trump kind.
🚨TRUMP TO HOUSE REPUBLICANS:
"Milwaukee, where we are having our convention, is a horrible city."
A record-high 32% of U.S. voters say they would only vote for a candidate for major office who shares their views on abortion. The importance of a candidate’s abortion stance to one’s vote is markedly higher among pro-choice voters than it was during the 2020 presidential election cycle, while pro-life voters’ intensity about voting on the abortion issue has waned. Also, voters’ greater intensity on the issue today compared with 2020 is explained mainly by Democrats, while Republicans and independents have shown little change.
U.S. adults who are pro-choice are also significantly more likely now than two decades ago to say it is important that any future Supreme Court nominees share their views on abortion.
These results come two years after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization leaked draft decision foretold the court’s plan to abolish constitutional protection for abortion.
At the same time, Gallup finds Americans’ support for abortion rights and identification as “pro-choice” holding at the historically high levels seen since the Dobbs decision was leaked.
These findings are from Gallup’s annual Values and Beliefs poll, conducted May 1-23.
Abortion’s Importance as Voting Issue Up, Especially Among Pro-Choice Voters
Gallup has gauged the importance of a candidate’s views on abortion among U.S. registered voters at least once during each presidential election cycle since 1992. The current 32% who say they will only vote for a candidate who shares their views is up four percentage points since last May and eight points since 2020.
Meanwhile, a diminished plurality of voters, 45% (down 11 points from last year), consider abortion to be just one of many important factors, the lowest reading since 2012. Another 19% (up five points) say it is not a major issue for them, which is the third consecutive reading under 20% and well below those taken between 1992 and 2020.
IN a polarized electorate, this is a serious problem for the Republicans who have 100% thrown in their lot with the anti-abortion extremists.( There used to be pro-choice Republicans but now more. )
The increase in pro-choice Americans who say they prioritize the issue when voting may have helped Democrats blunt Republicans’ anticipated gains in the 2022 midterm election and would appear to be an even greater advantage for the party today. One cautionary note is that all of the increase since then in voters saying they will only support candidates who share their position on abortion has occurred among Democrats. A slight majority of Democratic registered voters (52%) now say this, up from 37% in 2022.
It’s a motivator. And now the Republicans in congress have refused to guarantee the right to birth control and IVF as well.
Trump is an ignoramus but he knows that this is a killer and he’s twisting himself into a pretzel trying to get Republicans to play it cool until he can eke out a victory and deliver whatever they want. They just can’t cooperate because the misogynist, patriarchal evangelical MAGA base insists on pushing the envelope.
Last Sunday in Nevada, Donald Trump rather strangely did not endorse a Senate candidate in advance of the primary the following Tuesday. It was especially odd because one of them was his ambassador to Iceland and a super Trump loyalist by the name of Jeff Gunter. After Trump got on the plane back to Mar-a-lago he posted an endorsement of Gunter’s rival, Sam Brown, who went on to win two days later.
The beltway consensus was that Trump waited to see who was likely to win before making his endorsement which is logical. He does that all the time. But according to Gunter, something else was in play. After Trump made the endorsement, Gunter took to twitter to accuse Trump of taking a “big check” from “the swamp” (presumably one of the Senate Super Pacs) to endorse Brown even after he’s been convinced to endorse Gunter by “awesome & fearless MAGA warriors.” He claimed “the snakes are within” either referring to Trump campaign insiders or GOP establishment players or both.
He told the NY Times that he can prove this accusation about the endorsements. We’ll have to see. But would anyone be surprised?
Pelosi’s four daughters all say this is a flat-out lie which, of course, it is. After all, this is the guy who also said this:
He made quite a splash at today’s meeting up on Capitol Hill. It was just as nuts as his freak show the other day about boat batteries and sharks. The cult was in full-effect apparently, just loving every minute of Deal Leader’s appearance.
That’s what Trump told the Republican conference on Capitol Hill this morning. Luckily, he may be spared from having to attend the convention in that horrible city:
Donald Trump is preparing for a scenario in which he will be unable to attend the Republican National Convention, a decision influenced in part by the possibility that he could be sentenced to home confinement after his historic conviction late last month.
Preparations are being made at both Mar-a-Lago, his home in Florida, and in Milwaukee, the host city for the convention next month, should Trump either choose to make appearances from afar or be unable to attend, according to two sources familiar with the planning.
[…]
In case of potential house arrest, the Republican National Committee is already setting up convention-themed staging at Mar-a-Lago, along with a massive screen at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, where most convention activities will take place.
“If you look at what has been released about the stage at our convention, it’s going to be the highest-tech stage ever,” a Republican operative who has toured the convention site said. “It will allow the campaign to utilize people not in Milwaukee to be projected into the hall.”
“This will give President Trump an opportunity to participate in more days of the convention if he chooses to,” the person continued.
The RNC has put its stage construction front and center, with Chair Michael Whatley calling it “the centerpiece of a word-class production and a historic experience,” at a news conference.
It sounds just grand. I wonder if Melania is planning to show up? Even at Mar-a-Lago?
