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Get A Grip

Published by Tom Sullivan on February 23, 2024

No one is pulling a president out of their hat

“Evil Geniuses” author Kurt Andersen reaches a conclusion. It should have been obvious to all the people who circulated a certain podcast from last week. Until the end of his long monologue, Lawrence O’Donnell Thursday night avoided mentioning it in refuting its premise. Why give more exposure to a notion he finds ridiculous?

Andersen posted at Threads:

OK, @lawrence_odonnell convinced me to stop even entertaining the Biden-decides-not-to-run notion, even as a thought experiment. Powerful multi-faceted refutation.

Andersen’s post was the first thing I saw this morning.

Jon Stewart in his “The Daily Show” return last week addressed the age of both expected 2024 presidential candidates and public discontent over it. Stewart played a clip of Vice President Kamala Harris assuring people that in his closed-door meetings, President Biden is “smart … on his game … and on top of it all.” 

Stewart snarked, “Did anyone film that?”

“We only film the parts that don’t matter,” O’Donnell answered, referring to the facile, horse-race reporting that values political theater over actual governing. News cameras aren’t allowed behind closed doors when the real work of governing takes place. O’Donnell draws on his time spent time in those rooms.

“The thing to know about cameras and government is if the camera is rolling nothing really important is happening,” O’Donnell said. “What you’re watching is the theater. The governing will not be televised.”

The political press fails at informing the public of the consequential work of governance, he argues. It doesn’t make for good TV. And they’re not allowed in the room.

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Ron DeSantis Is Even Worse Than We Knew

Published by digby on February 22, 2024

He’s a straight up racist misogynist

Get a load of this:

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told backers of his unsuccessful presidential bid Wednesday that former President Donald Trump should not play “identity politics” when picking a 2024 running mate.

“Now we have a diverse Republican Party. I want everybody in the fold, don’t get me wrong. But I don’t want people representing 10, 15% of the party being in the driver’s seat,” DeSantis said on a call with supporters, including those who had committed to serving as delegates for him at this year’s Republican National Convention, according to audio obtained by NBC News.

“So I would want somebody that, if something happened, the people that voted us in would have been pleased to know that they’re going to continue the mission,” DeSantis added. “I’m not sure that those are going to necessarily be the criteria that Donald Trump uses. … I have heard that they’re looking more in identity politics. I think that’s a mistake. I think you should just focus on who the best person for the job would be, and then do that accordingly.”

More than 200 people joined the video call with DeSantis, according to one source who attended. The 34-minute chat, organized by DeSantis political allies, was notable for how candid — and, at times, critical — the governor was in sharing concerns about Trump, whom he endorsed for the GOP nomination immediately upon suspending his own campaign last month.

He says that he doesn’t like identity politics but he doesn’t want “people representing 10, 15% of the party being in the driver’s seat” which means he only wants white people and by that he means white men. (Women only count for 3/5ths?)

I can’t believe anyone would says something like that in public in 2023 but apparently he’s so completely racist and sexist that he doesn’t believe that a black, brown or female person is capable of representing white men.

All pretense is being dropped now. They’re just coming right out and saying this stuff.

Supahstah!

Published by digby on February 22, 2024

There are so many great young Democrats right now and Crockett is one of the very best. I wish she was from somewhere other than Texas where she might have a chance at higher office. But she’s a true asset in the House and we should all be grateful to have her.

Do You Think Trump Would Have Done This?

Published by digby on February 22, 2024

Not on your life

yt

From Foreign Policy:

Two weeks ago, Brazil’s federal police launched a high-profile raid against former President Jair Bolsonaro and more than 10 of his allies, including Brazil’s former navy chief, national security advisor, and ministers of defense and justice. Authorities accused the group of plotting a potential coup after Bolsonaro’s failed 2022 reelection bid.

Court documents related to the raid suggest that Bolsonaro personally edited a decree that would have overturned election results and imprisoned a Supreme Court justice; a general loyal to the president confirmed he would provide the troops needed to carry out the coup. Bolsonaro also allegedly pressured his cabinet to more forcefully share disinformation about supposed weaknesses in Brazil’s electoral system. The former president was asked to hand over his passport to authorities and may face decades in jail.

The recent revelations suggest that Brazilian coup-mongers’ plans were more advanced than initially believed. In the end, however, they did not get their way—in part due to divisions within Brazil’s armed forces that were the target of concerted pro-democracy efforts by U.S. President Joe Biden.

Biden’s stated commitment to defending democracy worldwide is often brushed off as mere rhetoric. After all, during his tenure, the United States has made uneasy compromises with autocrats to achieve its geopolitical objectives. Amid continued U.S. support for Israel’s assault on Gaza, Washington has also been branded a hypocrite in much of the global south.

This tide of criticism may explain why one of Biden’s most significant foreign-policy achievements to date remains curiously overlooked. Not only was Brazil’s democracy closer to the brink than initially understood, but targeted U.S. pressure on key Brazilian officials was likely decisive in guaranteeing the eventual outcome: a largely peaceful transition of power in the country after its October 2022 presidential election.

The account presented in this article comes from interviews with Brazilian policymakers and issue-area experts as well as Brazilian and international media reports. In conversations with Foreign Policy, several individuals, including a high-ranking Brazilian diplomat and a military expert, confirmed that, in their views, external pressure was critical to preventing members of Brazil’s military from executing Bolsonaro’s plans for a coup.

Evidently, the pressure came not just from the president but the entire US Government, most importantly the Pentagon which was very influential with the Brazilian Generals who were necessary for the coup to succeed.

It’s very sad to me that the administration isn’t getting more credit for things like this and the Afghanistan withdrawal. The Gaza situation is a nightmare and I too, of course, wish that the US would be able to exert more power to put an end to it. But it doesn’t wipe out everything else that’s happened. And the alternative is so much worse… alas, that’s where we are.

“I’m Not In Church”

Published by digby on February 22, 2024

Oh yes, you are Congressman GOPer, whether you like it or not

We’ve been warning about this Christian Nationalist theocratic faction in the GOP for a couple of decades now and nobody ever took it seriously. The chickens are coming home to roost. They got Roe banned, now they’re effectively banning IVF in the states, birth control, LGBTQ rights and even “recreational sex” is now openly on the agenda. And these people have power.

Even some Republicans are chaffing at the overt proselytizing:

Speaker Mike Johnson delivered a presentation at a weekend GOP retreat that — although it was billed as a map to keeping the House majority — took on a surprisingly religious tone, according to two people in the room.

Johnson’s private remarks to a small group of Republican lawmakers at Miami’s Mandarin Oriental Hotel over the weekend alarmed both people, who addressed the speech on condition of anonymity. Rather than outlining a specific plan to hold and grow the majority, these people said, Johnson effectively delivered a sermon.

The Louisiana Republican showed slides to the members of his Elected Leadership Committee (ELC) team in a bid to tout the party’s prospects of hanging onto its two-seat majority in November. Johnson, a devout Christian, attempted to rally the group by discussing moral decline in America — focusing on declining church membership and the nation’s shrinking religious identity, according to both people in the room.

The speaker contended that when one doesn’t have God in their life, the government or “state” will become their guide, referring back to Bible verses, both people said. They added that the approach fell flat among some in the room.

“I’m not at church,” one of the people said, describing Johnson’s presentation as “horrible.”

“I think what he was trying to do, but failed on the execution of it, was try to bring us together,” that person said. “The sermon was so long he couldn’t bring it back to make the point.”

A third person in the room who is close to Johnson said that the speaker dipped into historical and religious points for perhaps a third of his presentation, arguing that the party needed to save the country. That person, who spoke on condition of anonymity about the private gathering, said Johnson also talked about polling on the border, how President Joe Biden compares to Donald Trump on various issues and the House GOP’s core message.

The weekend retreat also featured notable tension between GOP conference leaders and Freedom Caucus Chair Bob Good (R-Va.), who argued in Miami that Johnson needs to lead Republicans in the direction that is favored by conservatives.

Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) pushed back, questioning if Good — who had voted to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy — would let Johnson lead or if he would block him whenever he disagreed with the GOP leader’s approach, according to all three people who addressed the speaker’s presentation. Conservatives have blocked legislation from being considered on the floor several times this term.

Those dissenters had better get used to it. These people now own the party. And they obtained ownership with the help of a cult leader who is depraved, immoral and beyond ignorant. His narcissism has allowed them to take the reins of power because he doesn’t know or care what they are doing as long as he is adored by his followers.

I don’t know how much longer any of them will hold out. The party is shedding non-MAGA elected officials two at a time these days and those who are staying are all spineless or just as immoral and their Dear Leader, taking advantage of the opportunities authoritarianism provides. And when Trump has shuffled off his mortal coil and the excitement cools, guess who’s going to be in charge? The theocrats.

Nikki, you’re so full of it

Published by digby on February 22, 2024

This is a moderate?

Aaaand:

“I think what’s really important is to know that the majority of Americans dislike Donald Trump and Joe Biden,” she said. “So we think that there needs to be an alternative.”

While critical of both men — who she called “too old” to be president — she said “Biden is more dangerous” due to his management of immigration and the economy. Haley hinted that, if Biden and Trump were to face a rematch, she would back Trump if he wins the Republican presidential nomination.

The former South Carolina governor also spoke against what she called “hate, division and chaos” fomented by Trump. She compared the ex-president to a “bully,” and stressed that he failed to obtain significant portions of the electorate in Iowa and New Hampshire.

“People don’t like when he goes off the teleprompter and says crazy things like he’d rather take Putin’s side over our allies,” Haley said. “People don’t like it when he mocks the military. People don’t like it when he calls people names.”

The economy is roaring and the GOP just blocked a right wing immigration bill. Trump is threatening our allies and licking Putin’s boots. But she thinks Biden is more dangerous :in immigration and the economy” so she’ll probably endorse Trump.

Why The Biden White House Believes The NY Times Is Out To Get Them

Published by digby on February 22, 2024

Page A1:

Page A16

This is what we’re dealing with. It shouldn’t have to be this hard.

Check this out from Politico:

That’s right. He’s four points up in that poll. But that headline is how they chose to frame the story.

How about this?

What does being beleaguered have to do with student loan forgiveness? How about “determined” or “committed”?

Here you can see that they originally had a neutral headline and actually revised it to make it demeaning toward Biden:

Every headline is about how poor, old Biden is just floundering, over and over and over again. It’s astonishing.

They Want Nothing, They Want Nothing

Published by Tom Sullivan on February 22, 2024

Emo Trump revisited

“Nah.” This clip evoked a memory from Donald “91 Counts” Trump’s tenure.

Post by @fightforprogress
View on Threads

USA Today (2/13) op-ed:

Donald Trump on Friday acknowledged his cowardice when it comes to America’s epidemic of gun violence and the resulting slaughter of this country’s children.

Being Trump, he tried to make that sound like a virtue.

Speaking at a National Rifle Association gun show in Pennsylvania’s capital city Friday, Trump bragged about his record of inaction.

“During my four years nothing happened,” Trump said. “And there was great pressure on me, having to do with guns. We did nothing. We didn’t yield.”

That’s Trump telling the truth for a change. 

“We did nothing,” Trump brags. It’s a Republican thing. You wouldn’t understand.

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Tali-bans For All Of Us

Published by Tom Sullivan on February 22, 2024

It’s Free States and Slave States again

“If you don’t think this country is sliding toward theocracy, you’re not paying attention,” writes Charles Blow, reacting to the Alabama Supreme Court’s Tuesday ruling that frozen embryos are children. Destruction of those embryos, even by accident, the court ruled, falls under the state’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act. 

From the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe to plans by Trump-aligned think tanks to restructure the United States to suit Christian nationalists to Alabama’s Tuesday ruling, Tali-bans will pop up all over in a second Trump term. A national abortion ban is clearly on the agenda.

“Control of women’s bodies is the endgame,” Blow continues.

But is it? Reducing women to birthing vessels and daycare attendants is only one part of the plan. Theists who have long argued that the founders intended to create a Christian nation publish textbooks, build theme parks, ban books, and rail against public education on that basis in a bid to force the rest of us to live according to their worldview. And not just women. Women in their minds are simply easier targets.

Will Bunch this week posted a Heritage Foundation clip from last year advocating the elimination of birth control. Bunch comments, “If Democrats can’t defeat a party that wants to end recreational sex then I give up.” Women are not their only targets, boys. They’ll be coming for IUDs and condoms in short order. The most radical among them believe even barrier methods are murder.

Their Mandate for Leadership (over 900 pages) and its supporting organizations toss around the word freedom liberally, but neither liberality nor freedom is their goal. Not, at least, as the majority of Americans living outside their looking-glass world would recognize it.

Speaker emerita Nancy Pelosi reminds people that the IVF ban impacts men as well as women, mothers and fathers, families, couples, everyone. The Christian nationalist vision is fueled not simply by isolationism and xenophobia. Their vision is totalizing, and they’ve written it down.

It is ironic how, especially post-September 11, whenever a Muslim ran for office, the right screamed that she/he meant to introduce Sharia law to the United States. Some other faith’s religious law: bad. Christian theist’s law: good.

The extremist right threatens civil war whenever it does not get its way in a democratic process it has already abandoned. And they have not gone to guns yet. But already in the post-Roe era we are devolving into free states and slave states where it is not only women’s rights to control their bodies being restricted, but the rights of anyone who wants to become a parent and start a family. Our most intimate decisions are at stake. Christian nationalists’ targets are all of us.

Update: Too good not to add.

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He’ll Just Start With “The Bad Ones”

Published by digby on February 21, 2024

He’ll come for “the good ones” next

At last night’s S. Carolina town hall, Trump was asked what the actual plan was for the rounding up of immigrants:

Here’s one of his lackeys today:

The Washington Post reports today:

Faced with a surge of migrant families at the U.S.-Mexico border in 2018 and 2019, Donald Trump’s White House discussed ways to more aggressively deploy the resources and the might of the U.S. military.

Aides and officials spoke privately about detaining migrants on military bases and flying them out of the country on military planes — ideas that the Pentagon headed off. Throughout his presidency, Trump himself would frequently demand to send troops to the border and catch people crossing.

“He was obsessed with having the military involved,” said a former senior administration official, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private discussions.

That approach and unfinished business have taken on renewed significance and urgency as the country confronts another migrant crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border, and as Trump closes in on the Republican presidential nomination. The former president is making immigration a core campaign theme, promoting a proposal for an unprecedented deportation effort if he is returned to power.

Trump pledges that as president he would immediately launch “the largest domestic deportation operation in American history.” As a model, he points to an Eisenhower-era program known as “Operation Wetback,” using a derogatory slur for Mexican migrants. The operation used military tactics to round up and remove migrant workers, sometimes transporting them in dangerous conditions that led to some deaths. Former administration officials and policy experts said staging an even larger operation today would face a bottleneck in detention space — a problem that Trump adviser Stephen Miller and other allies have proposed addressing by building mass deportation camps.

“Americans can expect that immediately upon President Trump’s return to the Oval Office, he will restore all of his prior policies, implement brand new crackdowns that will send shock waves to all the world’s criminal smugglers, and marshal every federal and state power necessary to institute the largest deportation operation in American history,” said Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt in a statement. She added that undocumented immigrants “should not get comfortable because very soon they will be going home.”

Trump has made similar promises and hasused inflammatory smears since his 2016 campaign. But he, his aides and allies say a second turn in office would be more effective in operating the levers of the federal bureaucracy and less vulnerable to internal resistance. During his term, former officials said, Trump learned to install more officials at the Department of Homeland Security who would carry out his orders instead of trying to curb his impulses.

Anyone who believes that letting these psychos win will teach Joe Biden and the Democrats the lesson that they’d better accept their policies regarding climate/Palestine/immigrants/whatever need to have their heads examined. And yes, I am reading and hearing this on social media.