Digby's Hullabaloo Posts

I can only think of one person

Oh look, a ratfuck:

The New Hampshire attorney general’s office says it is investigating what appears to be an “unlawful attempt” at voter suppression after NBC News reported on a robocall impersonating President Joe Biden telling recipients not to vote in Tuesday’s presidential primary.

“Although the voice in the robocall sounds like the voice of President Biden, this message appears to be artificially generated based on initial indications,” the attorney generals office said in a statement. “These messages appear to be an unlawful attempt to disrupt the New Hampshire Presidential Primary Election and to suppress New Hampshire voters. New Hampshire voters should disregard the content of this message entirely.”

The investigation comes after a prominent New Hampshire Democrat, whose personal cell phone number showed up on the caller ID of those receiving the call, filed a complaint.

“What a bunch of malarkey,” the robocall phone message begins, echoing a favorite term Biden has uttered before.

Nikki Haley’s campaign is unlikely to be the source of this little ratfuck since she’s the one most likely to benefit from Democrats who want to vote against Trump. So who does that leave?

Anyone remember this?

 In 2002 … a so-called phone-jamming effort was carried out during a hotly contested U.S. Senate race. Two Republican officials, including the executive director of the state Republican Party and a Republican National Committee operative, were convicted of using computer-generated phone calls to disrupt Democrats’ get-out-the-vote call center operations.  

If only Democrats would stop cheating in elections, amirite?

In fact, the term ratfuck was first deployed in New Hampshire in 1972 by Richard Nixon’s henchmen who took out Senator Edmund Muskie in a famous act of campaign sabotage, The Canuck Letter.

It’s what they do.

Bye bye Ron. It’s been real.

Who would ever have guessed that the latest Republican Great Whitebread Hope would crash and burn even before the New Hampshire primary? It’s not as if they always end up being losers. Well, actually they do. Every cycle some highly touted GOP Governor is built up to be the second coming of Ronald Reagan and they inevitably come to a ignominious end that generally spells the end of their political future. (When’s the last time you heard anything about former heartthrobs Scott Walker of Wisconsin or Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota?) Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who quit the race on Sunday rather than face another primary drubbing, is no exception. The man from Florida turned out to be a dud, just like so many who have come before him.

Despite all the hype he never stood any chance of dethroning Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination and it actually had little to do with him. It’s because Donald Trump has had the nomination in the bag since January 21, 2021. Even zombie Reagan wouldn’t be able to beat him. And there was never any doubt that Trump was going to seek a rematch since he had staked his well-being and the future of the GOP on the Big Lie that the election had been stolen from him.

But DeSantis was one of the most arrogant of all these alleged superstars whose campaign may have been the worst of all time. There have been quite a few postmortems of this disastrous campaign already, some of them even before he officially dropped out. It wasn’t hard to see it coming. Despite the media continuing to take him very seriously almost until the end, it’s been clear that his campaign was nose-diving since the spring of last year.

After his big re-election win in 2022, an anomaly in that otherwise disappointing year for Republicans, he was briefly seen as a rare political talent that could possibly beat Trump when the polls showed them neck and neck. But that was a very short-lived phenomenon:

Morning Consult’s daily tracker shows DeSantis was already losing altitude for months before the first indictment. His peak was January 5, 2023. This basically looks like a linear function of Republican voters forgetting about the midterms. https://t.co/6SmwFthNcN pic.twitter.com/FWniD20dMX

— Patrick Ruffini (@PatrickRuffini) January 22, 2024

Conventional wisdom now holds that Trump rose abruptly in the polls because he was indicted. It’s just as possible that when national Republicans started to get a good look at DeSantis they decided that Trump was a better choice, indictments or not. And that’s because DeSantis is an extremely unlikable politician. (I once compared him to Richard Nixon and I was being unfair to Nixon!)

What he did to his own state in service of his grasping ambition was downright wicked and it should have tipped off the punditocracy to the fact that he was being unduly influenced by right wing internet politics. We first knew he was uniquely barbarous when he made defiance of COVID mitigation measures and vaccination program the central issue of his administration. This was a stance so irresponsible that his state, which has an older demographic than any other state in the union, ended up with a much higher death rate than it should have. And this outrageous irresponsibility continues to this day, with his quack Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, chosen specifically for his fringe anti-vaccine views, exhorting Florida residents not to get any MRNA boosters, based upon shoddy science. This in spite of new studies showing that multiple vaccination shots greatly reduce the chances of contracting Long COVID.

DeSantis was still flying the COVID resistance flag in his presidential campaign often using it as his great selling point on the trail. He even brought Ladopo to campaign stops. It’s not only an example of his desperately poor leadership, it’s also a prime example of his desperately poor political judgment which carried all the way through to his announcement that he was dropping out of the race of Sunday. After everything that’s happened since then, he basically said that he’s fine with Trump except for his COVID policy and his support for Dr. Fauci. He truly believes that his COVID policies are his greatest achievement but apparently, Republican voters weren’t all that impressed. (Maybe it’s because of the high COVID death rates in GOP states.)

That wasn’t the only problem with his campaign, of course. There was the disastrous announcement event on X which turned out to be symbolic of his whole campaign: lots of hype and then nothing but glitches. The infighting within the campaign and his Super PAC, an experiment that was not only of dubious legality but never really worked. He avoided the mainstream press preferring to focus only on right wing media, failing to recognize that Donald Trump owns them. And then there is his pathetic lack of personal charm and charisma. If there was ever someone who is not suited to retail politics it is Ron DeSantis.

He’s heading back to Florida now, a state which he has abused so badly in pursuit of his presidential ambitions that it’s now just a smoking hulk of what’s left of the latest right wing experiment in governing by twitter and Newsmax. If he did nothing else he proved that following the advice of the MAGA “intellectuals” like Christopher Rufo may not be the big winner everyone thought it was.

Unfortunately for Florida, they are saddled with a 15 week or 6 week abortion ban, both of which he signed, at least until the courts declare otherwise. Their public schools and higher education are in crisi,s beset with controversy over banned books and “don’t say gay” laws that are completely out of step with modern America. His “elections policing unit” is backfiring. His administration is riddled with corruption and he’s still embroiled in a feud with the state’s largest employer which he undertook because someone told him that “fighting the woke” was his ticket to the big time.

Throughout his campaign he said over and over again that he wanted to make America Florida but the Americans he expected to embrace that vision rejected it out of hand. There’s a lesson in that for the Republican Party but I doubt they are going to hear it. After all, he was just trying to be Trump and they are all knocking each other over in the rush to endorse him.

And that even includes DeSantis himself who said just last week, “You can be the most worthless Republican in America, but if you kiss the ring he’ll say you’re wonderful.” Just six days later, without even a hint of embarrassment, he proved that to be true. He kissed the ring and Trump said “he was very gracious, and he endorsed me, so I appreciate that.”

His final awkward video of this whole debacle, suspending his campaign, was yet another gaffe:

I reached out to the @ChurchillCentre's executive director, who said that "as indicated on our website, there is no documented attribution of Churchill making this statement." https://t.co/hbRlqb2on7

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) January 22, 2024

It’s a fitting end to one of the most humiliating presidential runs in American history.

Salon

Ritual humiliation and humiliation humilitation

A couple of social media posts about the ongoing fascist follies. The inferiority complex runs deep. Followers will, as Ruth Ben-Ghiat (“Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present“) observes, debase themselves to win the Leader’s approval and bask in any glimmer of reflected glory.

Authoritarians engage in ritual humiliation of their lackeys to spur more rounds of loyalty performances. Instead of rebelling or uniting ag. him they debase themselves further. See #Strongmen for details. Mussolini & Mobutu were esp. skilled at the art of public humiliation. https://t.co/1hGlFHNKI3

— Ruth Ben-Ghiat (@ruthbenghiat) January 22, 2024

Here’s the clip so you don’t have to hunt it.

Wow, even for Trump, this is something. House Republicans, take note – dude doesn't give one shit about any of you. cc @SpeakerJohnson https://t.co/EE57J8xb4U

— Simon Rosenberg (@SimonWDC) January 22, 2024

Like Donald Trump has for decades, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders dutifully regurgitates that people “on the other side of the world are laughing at us.” Trump the Insecure has always craved the respect of people he never felt took him seriously (like his father), and not just in New York City. It’s why Trump fawns over Russian President Vladimir Putin and Hungarian strongman Viktor Orbán and North Korea’s “hereditary communist monarch” Kim Jong-un.

They’ll never let you into their club, Donald. You’ll never have their respect. How much more pathetic that MAGA cult members crave Trump’s? Like loyalty with him, respect is a one-way street.

Hostage video vibe but also willing cult follower. She is robotic and yet fanatic- look at her eyes. Reciting the Verse of the Trumpcult. Even saying Trump was president by the will of God does not exempt her from the performances of loyalty. https://t.co/FI2UCxiT2k

— Ruth Ben-Ghiat (@ruthbenghiat) January 22, 2024

Yes, white nationalist clowns who dress alike and follow each other around like some kind of low-rent fraternity like to project menace for the rush.* They may even commit violence. But as a force to be reckoned with they leave something to be desired. Laugh, but remain vigilant.

 

 

Post by @reed_galen_lp

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* A former biker I once knew told me he was never into fighting. He just liked the implied menace that came with being a biker. Civilians gave him a wide berth.

Biden expands abortion, contraception protections

One of the first headlines that popped up this morning was on a Jill Filopic column at Slate: Biden Is Whiffing It on the Most Important Issue for Democrats. Biden says restoring abortion rights will be his No. 1 priority in a second term. Well?

The column criticizes the Biden administration for issuing “executive orders to protect abortion and contraception, but those do not invalidate state abortion bans or potential contraception bans.” Filopic adds, “The Department of Health and Human Services issued an important directive on the long-standing Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, confirming that hospitals receiving federal Medicaid dollars have to care for and stabilize any patient who comes through their doors, regardless of that patient’s ability to pay.” But they have limited effect.

So “it’s hard to say that restoring abortion rights has been the No. 1 priority of Biden’s administration,” Filopic continues (in a post likely filed over the weekend), “because, while he has made some statements supporting abortion rights, the president simply hasn’t made it a cornerstone of his campaign.”

And yet.

Flipping over to the Washington Post there is Biden expands abortion, contraception protections on Roe anniversary:

The White House on Monday is announcing new steps intended to ensure access to contraception, abortion medication and emergency abortions at hospitals. It represents President Biden’s latest bid to contrast himself with Republican challengers who support strict abortion limits and arrives on the anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling that guaranteed abortion rights for nearly 50 years.

The effort to expand access to contraception involves several measures. Federal agencies are issuing guidance that would make no-cost contraceptives more available under the Affordable Care Act and take similar actions to expand contraception access for federal employees. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra also plans to send a letter to health insurers instructing them of their obligation to provide no-cost contraceptives, according to a memo the White House sent to reporters Sunday.

The federal health department also announced a new team dedicated to enforcing its interpretation of a law, known as the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, or EMTALA, which the Biden administration has said requires hospitals to provide emergency abortions nationwide, including in the 21 states where the procedure is limited or banned.

EMTALA is the law Filopic thinks doesn’t go far enough; anti-abortion groups in Texas are already pushing back in court. Fair enough. But her column may have been premature. Biden, she writes, must “not just pledge to make abortion rights the top priority of his second term but … make them a top priority in this election and in his administration right now.”

Biden answers (The Post again):

Meanwhile, Biden on Monday is expected to convene two dozen senior officials in the White House for a meeting of his reproductive health task force, where he will be joined by several physicians who have practiced in states with abortion bans. Vice President Harris is slated to kick off a multistate reproductive rights tour with a visit to Wisconsin, where she is expected to criticize a proposal by state Republicans to ban abortion after 14 weeks of pregnancy. Wisconsin’s Democratic governor has already said he will veto the bill.

“On this day and every day, Vice President Harris and I are fighting to protect women’s reproductive freedom against Republicans’ dangerous, extreme, and out-of-touch agenda,” Biden said in a statement.

The Biden administration’s actions — coming on what would have been the 51st anniversary of the landmark ruling in Roe v. Wade, before the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion in 2022 — reflect Democrats’ ongoing effort to highlight an issue that gives them a strong political advantage. Fifty-eight percent of all voters, including about 1 in 5 Republicans, said they trust Democrats more than Republicans on abortion, according to a November poll conducted by KFF, a health policy organization.

Still, an “anniversary” press event is not enough to drive home the point that restoring abortion rights is central to Biden’s reelection campaign. The campaign’s messaging effort has to be sustained and part of every event. Paint the beautiful tomorrow. Lather, rinse, repeat. “Tell ’em what you’re going to tell ’em; then tell ’em; then tell ’em what you told ’em.” The truth, if it’s to set voters free, must be shouted.

Biden was in North Carolina last week touting his administration’s infrastructure spending putting “shovels in the ground, cranes in the sky, and people hard at work on these projects.” Terrific. Yet there was no reference to women or women’s rights in his remarks. Yes, campaigns like to build events around themes. But women’s rights are not a theme if they’re not ever-present. Always Be Closing.

Mike Johnson is on thin ice

The crazies are restless:

Speaker Mike Johnson is beset with political challenges: At least two conservative lawmakers have begun threatening his job. The former acting speaker trashed Johnson’s performance this week. A border-policy showdown with the Senate and White House draws nearer every day.

And then there’s the problem of the 2024 campaign.

A growing number of House Republicans are increasingly frustrated with Johnson’s leadership and whispering about whether he can hang on to his role after 2024 — if he even makes it that far.

Despite serving barely three months as speaker, the Louisianan is already facing an immediate threat from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who is openly disparaging him and suggesting she may try to boot him from the speakership.

“I don’t think he’s safe right now,” Greene said, adding: “The only reason he’s speaker is because our conference is so desperate.”

Few Republicans are prepared to join Greene, at least at this point. But more than 100 of them signaled frustration with Johnson’s approach to government spending by opposing a funding patch on Thursday, including House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik of New York. Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), who briefly served as interim speaker, delivered a blunt warning Thursday night that “we’re sucking wind” under Johnson’s leadership, urging the speaker to broaden his circle of advisers and avoid kowtowing to his right.

And still other Republicans are privately predicting that unless Johnson can hang onto their thin majority this fall, his time atop the GOP conference could expire.

Interviews with more than a dozen GOP lawmakers revealed a consensus that Johnson would have serious trouble staying in power after an electoral defeat. These days, some lawmakers who embraced Johnson — after the failure of three other aspiring successors to former Speaker Kevin McCarthy — openly acknowledge that the Louisianan would get the blame for any stumble at the ballot box this fall.

“It’s up to him to win or lose. And if he loses, he will leave,” said Texas Rep. Pete Sessions, a former National Republican Congressional Committee chair.

Sessions, who had his own short-lived bid for the gavel in October, predicted that if Republicans do not hold the majority, then Johnson “isn’t going to stick around — I mean that.”

Yes, he was dealt a bad hand. But he is also a right wing nut job who is at the mercy of his own allies — other right wing nut jobs. The House is ungovernable by any GOP majority. It’s been that way for over a decade because the party has lost its mind. Johnson is just the latest in a long line of failed GOP speakers.

But here’s a little bit of sunshine for you:

Johnson allies argue that skeptics are underestimating him, pointing to his quick progress assuaging concerns that he couldn’t keep up with McCarthy’s torrid fundraising pace. The more he helps with the 2024 campaign and candidate recruitment, the more Johnson can form some of the deeper connections to incoming members that helped McCarthy survive a grueling speakership race last January.

Even so, Republicans are openly admitting that they’re worried about November. Which is never a good sign.

“We’re in real jeopardy of not winning the White House and not winning the House,” said Rep. Richard McCormick (R-Ga.), who argued the party is not focused on voters’ top issues.

“The Federal Reserve is going to cut [interest rates] probably at least twice, if not five times this year. The gas price always comes down during an election. And the border will be secured before November. It’s gonna happen, right? It’s gonna be part of some package,” McCormick mused. “What are the three things that are the Achilles heel of Biden? Those three things.”

Many normal Americans who don’t necessarily agree with all of Biden’s policies are loyal to him because they’re tired of being looked down on and sneered at like this by Republicans. https://t.co/raejY7XfK9

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) January 21, 2024

This is the media’s fault for indulging these spoiled brats’ tantrums about being “insulted” by the coastal elites. Nobody is more insulting than they are — and they’ve been that way for years. This isn’t a Trump thing. It’s a “Real America” thing.

He’s out. Thank God.

Robo-MAGA. Has. Been. Deactivated. https://t.co/EOkoXCIW1V

— Greg Sargent (@GregTSargent) January 21, 2024

Yes, he is the most worthless politician in America:

Ron DeSanctimonious endorses Trump.
Self-respect anyone?
DeSantis earlier this month: “You can be the most worthless Republican in America, but if you kiss the ring, he’ll say you’re wonderful… if you don’t kiss that ring, then he’ll try to trash you.” https://t.co/EkhdxVHUjb

— EJ Dionne (@EJDionne) January 21, 2024

It seems only minutes ago that the whole political world was agog at his tremendous political talent. Well…

The lesson? Never assume that the next GOP Great Whitebread Hope is as fantastic as the press corps thinks he is.

The other lesson? If you’re going to run as the biggest asshole in politics you’d better have a lot of money and celebrity that makes people think you must be really great anyway. Ron is just an asshole.

I am so happy to see the end of him. It’s been a real horror covering his disgusting campaign. Let’s hope we never see him on the national stage again. This massive flame-out argues for him joining Scott Walker and Tim Pawlenty in the Loser Hall of Fame.

What does it all mean? We’ll unwind all that in the next few days. But Greg Sargent is right that it spells the end of the big post-pandemic “woke” war. That battle in the culture war is coming to an end, but never fear, the war isn’t over.

DeSantis's implosion is more confirmation that anti-woke politics has completely fizzled. DeSantis organized his entire governorship *and* campaign on this theme. Now Moms for Liberty is losing everywhere, Youngkin failed disastrously, and "where woke goes to die" Ron is kaput. https://t.co/cgRsaliPRa

— Greg Sargent (@GregTSargent) January 21, 2024

Daniel Uhlfelder went through the FEC reports and found all money paid to law firms by Donald Trump’s Super PAC in the first 6 months of last year.

FEC records show that between January 1, 2023, and June 30, 2023, Donald Trump’s Super PAC, SAVE AMERICA, made payments to the following law firms in these amounts:
BALLARD SPAHR LLP – $109,174.55

BEDELL, DITTMAR, DEVAULT, PILLANS & COXE, P.A. – $351,040.77

BINNALL LAW GROUP – $1,031,788.33

BLANCHE LAW – $353,090.03

BRAND WOODWARD LAW – 201,948.00

BRITO PLLC – $68,194.50

CADWALADER, WICKERSHAM, & TAFT LLP – $344,950.21

CONTINENTAL PLLC – $1,929,207.90

DHILLON LAW GROUP INC. – $734,730.8

EARTH & WATER LAW, LLC – $347,820

HABBA MADAIO & ASSOCIATES LLP – $1,503,915.14

IFRAH LAW PLLC – $720,009.28

FINDLING LAW FIRM – $541,456.25

KELLOGG, HANSEN, TODD, FIGEL & FREDERICK PLLC – $1,042,479

CHRIS KISE & ASSOCIATES, P.A. – $2,148,536.58

JOHN F. LAURO, P.A. – $183,859.03

JPROWLEY LAW PLLC – $35,161

LEVEL LAW LTD – $89,721.45

MCGLINCHEY STAFFORD – $290,179.17

MINTZ, LEVIN, COHN, FERRIS, GLOVSKY AND

POPEO, P.C.- $269,424.39

NECHELESLAW LLP – $465,231.34

PARLATORE LAW GROUP, LLP – $136,325.1

ROBERT & ROBERT, PLLC – $1,355,631.17

SECIL LAW PLLC – $191,980.35

SILVERMAN THOMPSON SLUTKIN & WHITE, LLC – $2,183,578.73

SQUIRE PATTON BOGGS (US) LLP – $193,750

TACOPINA, SEIGEL & DEOREO -$ 1,773,126

WEBER, CRABB & WEIN, P.A. – $193,050 

Browse Disbursements – FEC.govExplore current and historic federal campaign finance data on the new fec.gov. Look at totals and trends, and see how candidates and committees raise and spend money. When you find what you need, expo…https://www.fec.gov/data/disbursements/?committee_id=C00762591&two_year_transaction_period=2024&data_type=processed

The total amount paid to these firms between January 1, 2023 and June 30, 2023 by SAVE AMERICA is almost $19 million. 

$18,789,359.07 actually 

28 law firms so average of $671,048 per firm 

My God. I’m sure that all Super PACs have legal expenses but this is insane. $19 million just in the first six months. I guess all his marks just love to give money to billionaires.

Trump is not an improvement in any way

I hear a lot on my social media these days about how Trump is better than Biden on the Gaza war. That’s utter nonsense. It’s true that Trump isn’t particularly fond of Netanyahu (neither is Biden, actually) but that does not mean that he would ever be an ally of the Palestinians or the Palestinian allies.

Donald Trump promised on Monday that if elected president again he will bar immigrants who support Hamas from entering the U.S. and send officers to pro-Hamas protests to arrest and deport immigrants who publicly support the Palestinian militant group.

Trump, president from 2017-2021, said that if elected to a second White House term he will ban entry to the U.S. of anybody who does not believe in Israel’s right to exist, and revoke the visas of foreign students who are “antisemitic.”

He also vowed to step up travel bans from “terror-plagued countries.” He did not explain how he would enforce his demands, including the one requiring immigrants to support Israel’s right to exist under what he called “strong ideological screening.” …

Promising to drastically tighten U.S. immigration laws, Trump said: “If you want to abolish the state of Israel, you’re disqualified, if you support Hamas or the ideology behind Hamas, you’re disqualified, and if you’re a communist, Marxist, or fascist, you are disqualified.”

“We will aggressively deport resident aliens with jihadist sympathies,” Trump said.

He may now say some things on the trail that imply that he would ditch Israel, since he surely senses the tension in the Democratic coalition, but I suspect he’ll be pretty careful about that. He wants to keep Republican Israel supporters in his corner and that means the evangelicals, a huge faction.

Trump is a blatantly racist piece of work who isn’t fond of Jews (except the “good ones” like Jared) but he really, really hates brown and black people. He spits out the word “Hussein” every time he mentions Obama. If people are unaware of his history with Muslim bashing, they need to educate themselves. There is no way in hell that he is going to be helpful to Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank or Cambridge Massachusetts. He will make an already terrible, complicated situation a million times worse.

The Biden campaign is out with a stark new ad featuring a woman talking about traveling out of state to receive an abortion due to Texas’ strict abortion ban. It’s the latest in their push to put reproductive rights front and center in the 2024 race.

New Biden campaign ad features a woman who says she had to flee Texas to end a planned pregnancy after the doctors said the fetus had no chance of survival. “Because of Donald Trump overturning Roe v. Wade.”pic.twitter.com/Uy1iURYrxo

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) January 21, 2024

It will be playing:

-during the The Bachelor season premiere
-on HGTV, TLC, Bravo, Hallmark, Food Network & Oxygen
-during NFL championships – on digital

This is very good. But it’s just a start. They need to keep it up.