Skip to content

Digby's Hullabaloo Posts

Childproofed?

Published by Tom Sullivan on June 24, 2024

GOP attacks on immigrants comes to prime time

Historian Jon Meacham told ABC’s “This Week” that the rules Joe Biden has won for this Thursday’s presidential debate means he has “childproofed” the debate for the child challenging him.

That’s naive, of course. The child has signaled his plan to tag Biden with every violent crime committed by an undocumented immigrant. If Biden is defending that accusation, he’s losing. He has to reject the premise and “out” what Trump is really doing.

Trump means to collectively punish 11 million undocumented migrants with mass roundup at the hands of the military, and to deport the lot using isolated isolated migrant crimes as a pretext. Perhaps pointing out Trump’s penchant for demonization and collective punishment of human beings he’s branded “vermin” is a more evocative counter. The subtext speaks for itself.

Trump has suggested tossing migrants into gladiatorial combat for the entertainment value:

The remarks are part of Trump’s broader pattern of using dehumanizing language when discussing immigrants, which during this election cycle has included broadly portraying migrants as violent criminals and saying that they are “poisoning the blood of our country.”

Biden might ask Trump what happened to shooting them in the legs and moats filled with alligators.

Brian Beutler joins Greg Sargent’s “Daily Blast” podcast this morning and notes that targeting most any other group for mass deportation would be beyond the pale as far as media reporting and public reaction goes. Pointing out that Trump advocates for that and where that impulse leads might draw “severe” backlash.

Trump took much less drastic moves against immigrants in his first administration and drew that backlash. Imagine the police or the military rolling up to a neighbor’s home and dragging them out. (Keep your phone handy and charged.) Even if some Trumpers would celebrate, it would create a media firestorm against Trump and Trumpism and a global black eye for the land of the free.

How the press covers (or doesn’t) “the Trump-MAGA demonization of migrants,” Sargent writes, should be “a major scandal in its own right.”

Beutler adds regarding Republican bad faith arguments:

Media organizations have the resources that they need to reveal what’s true about Americans. Are they are they really as nativist, protectionist, xenophobic as Republicans seem to think they are, as Donald Trump seems to think they are, as many even liberal pundits think they are? Or do they actually, when you present them with the raw idea of what Republicans are proposing, will they recoil? And I think that we will find that the headline, the top line numbers suggesting there’s support for mass deportations, will reveal a real soft underbelly. There’s not actually a mass movement for for that kind of cruelty.

Even racists recoil at being called racists. They have no issue with their feelings toward the “Other.” But the brand still carries a stigma even in the age of Trump. Everyone, even the vilest among us, wants to be seen as the good guy. Unmasking the xenophobes’ game for what it is could make the country take a long, hard look in the mirror.

● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

For The Win, 5th Edition is ready for download. Request a copy of my free countywide GOTV planning guide at ForTheWin.us.

What Values Are Those?

Published by Tom Sullivan on June 24, 2024

Whose values are those?

Power is a drug. An addictive one, potentially. Like other medications, it can heal, soothe, and harm if misused. From the first time a two-year-old says, “I want to do it myself,” or starts acting out or running away from parents to taste some personal freedom, they are expressing a human need for autonomy, for control.

Power is so visceral that it’s why I resist the impulse simply to brand as racism the reactionary views and actions of people who feel threatened by changing demographics and cultural norms. It’s not that racial animus is not a component. It’s that skin color is too convenient a shorthand for sizing up a crowd and knowing who’s who in the pecking order. IIRC (someone will correct me), one of Cyril Northcote Parkinson’s lesser known “laws,” allowed one to identify the most important person in a ballroom because they’d be found at a certain grid point at t+n minutes from the start of the event. And knowing that would be of interest why? Power.

Filmmaker Lynne Sachs has a short film at The New York Times about the crackdown on abortion access across the country since the Dobbs decision. “These folks who are in power, they have no interest in solutions,” declares the under-narrative running beneath the video. “It’s really just about control.”

People with it want to hang onto it. People addicted to it may not even know it until what little power they have is threatened by independent women (forever the prime target in slasher films), by immigrants, by people of color, and by religious, sexual, or lifestyle nonconformity. And, brother, is MAGA America threatened.

Stephanie McCrummen, a staff writer at The Atlantic, looks at MAGA, the Next Generation. Attending a Trump rally in Racine, Wisconsin, she found young adults who were in elementary school when Trump was first elected. They’ve been steeped in MAGA culture.

The right views culture as something to control, a war for dominance to win. The need for chest-thumping, flag-bedecked displays of patriotism comes not as much from love of country as a demand for control. Trump’s adoption of “Make America Great Again” was always about restoration of control to those threatened by sharing it with people they considered lessers. Just as the Redeemer movement post-Reconstruction was about re-securing white domination to the South after emancipation.

Where once, religious conservatives felt they represented a special set of values, Christian ones, American ones, that entitled them to rule dominate the culture as their birthright, now all that has been discarded. Consider the slogans McCrummen saw on display.

An older man in an I’M VOTING FOR THE FELON tee shirt listened to her conversation with an 18-year-old.

“It’s so good to see you girls,” said a white-haired woman wearing a FUCK BIDEN hat.

Recruiting the young into movements is how they build, McCrummen writes. “[L]ights, screens, music, and the emotional appeal of righteous belonging” is part of the program:

That kind of production has remained the essence of Trump rallies such as the one in Racine. And it has been the year-round specialty of Turning Point USA, the right-wing youth organization whose recent “People’s Convention” in Detroit was a carnival of swirling lights and booming music, with sponsors including the Association of Mature American Citizens—the MAGA version of the AARP. That event drew a crowd of young attendees who cheered 70-year-old Steve Bannon as he yelled “Victory or death!,” and 78-year-old Trump as he spoke of “the largest deportation operation in American history,” and two young men in sunglasses who walked onstage and unfurled a red flag that read WHITE BOY SUMMER, a white-supremacist slogan.

Jordan Lazier, 19, had come with his grandparents. His first presidential vote would be for Trump.

“I remember when he was elected, I just liked him,” he said, recalling how his mother felt similarly. “I just knew he was better than Hillary; I couldn’t tell you how.”

“You’re a smart kid,” his grandmother said. “Don’t forget about the evil versus good.”

“Good versus evil,” Jordan repeated, looking at her. “I know about satanic stuff most Democrats are into. Republicans talk about worshipping Jesus Christ, and Democrats worship the government.”

“We listen to a lot of prophets, and we understand Bohemian Grove,” his grandmother said, referring to some bleak corner of the QAnon conspiracy.

Behind her, a veteran rallygoer was explaining something called the Rattle Trap conspiracy to a newcomer who was saying, “There’s so much out there I don’t know about.”

Conspiracy theories are all about insider knowledge and false sense of power brings to the powerless. Once, Jesus gave them that sense. Not now.

Trumpers are teaching their children well.

● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

For The Win, 5th Edition is ready for download. Request a copy of my free countywide GOTV planning guide at ForTheWin.us.

Dr Feelgood Has A Demand

Published by digby on June 23, 2024

“I’m going to be demanding on behalf of many millions of concerned Americans right now that he submit to a drug test before and after this debate, specifically looking for performance enhancing drugs, because we see we’ve seen recently that in his state of the Union address, that there was a Joe Biden that came out that was not, similar at all to what we see on a day to day basis for the last three and a half years. And there’s just really no way to explain that, other than he was on something that could give any medications.

I feel like this is probably what’s going on over this week at Camp David. You know, he’s going to be at Camp David for a full week before the debate. Part of that is probably experimenting with, you know, just getting the doses just right, because, you know, they have to treat his cognition.”

He specifically mentions Adderal and Provigil:

Here’s a copy of one piece of evidence in the scathing Inspector General’s report on Jackson’s tenure as White House physician which led to him being busted down from admiral to captain for handing out just those drugs along with ketamine, fentanyl and morphine (among other reckless behaviors.)

Details on Jackson’s White House trap house:

A long-awaited inspector general’s report released last month faulted previous White House medical teams for widely dispensing sedatives and stimulants, failing to maintain records on potentdrugs including fentanyl, providing care to potentially hundreds of ineligible White House staff and contractors, and flouting otherfederal regulations.

“We concluded that all phases of the White House Medical Unit’s pharmacy operations had severe and systemic problems,” the report concluded, adding that the challenges threatened the unit’s primary mission — to keep the president and vice president healthy and safe.

The inspector general’s report sparked significant public alarm. But a Washington Post review found problems with the unit’s conduct were even more pronounced than the Pentagon’s latest findings, according to administration documents and interviews with former White House staffers and medical unit members, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations and internal procedures.

Four former members of the White House Medical Unit confirmed that in both the Trump and Obama White Houses,the team passed out sedatives such as Ambien and stimulants such as Provigil without proper prescriptions, provided complimentary medical equipment and imaging to ineligible staffers, and used aliases in electronic health records to disguise the patients’ identities and deliver free care in cases where the recipients wouldn’t be eligible.

Former staffers said those practices were shaped by Ronny Jackson, an emergency medicine physician who led the team under President BarackObama, continued to exert control over it as President Donald Trump’s personal doctor, and ultimately spent nearly 14 years in the White House. Now a Republican congressman, Jackson used his proximity to both presidents to build influence by dispensing medical care and drugs without proper procedures, the staffers said — conduct that earned him nicknames such as “Candyman” or “Dr. Feelgood,” according to a whistleblower complaint to Congress in 2018.

On losing his Admiral stripes:

Ronny Jackson, the former White House physician turned GOP congressman, regularly touts his military bona fides.

“As a retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral with nearly three decades of military service I understand the commitment and sacrifices made by servicemen and servicewomen to serve our country,” the two-term representative from Texas says on his congressional website in a message posted to a page listing his work on veterans issues.

But Jackson is no longer a retired admiral. The Navy demoted him in July 2022 following a damaging Pentagon inspector general’s report thatsubstantiated allegations about his inappropriate behavior as a White House physician,a previously unreported decision confirmed by a current defense official and a former U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive personnel move.

Jackson is now a retired Navy captain, those people said — a demotion that carries a significant financial burden in addition to the social stigma of stripped rank in military circles.

That inappropriate behavior included sexual harassment and drinking on the job.

As with Trump, Jackson’s absurd analysis is actually projection. Someone in the Trump White House was using Provigil and Adderal and it wasn’t Joe Biden. I think we might have a good idea who it was.

Why Not Gladiator Fights?

Published by digby on June 23, 2024

It’s hard to know whether the low point of Trump’s two speeches over the weekend was saying that Biden is “jacked up” on cocaine or this:

Former President Donald Trump suggested in two speeches Saturday that migrants coming to the U.S. should have their own fighting league, remarking that they’re “nasty, mean” and “tough people” who could beat the country’s top fighters.

Speaking first to a crowd of conservative Christians at a Faith & Freedom Coalition gathering in Washington, D.C., Trump said he shared the idea with Dana White, president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

“I said, ‘Dana I have an idea. Why don’t you set up a migrant league of fighters and have your regular league fighters,” Trump said, “and then you have the champion of your league — these are the greatest fighters in the world — fight the champion of the migrants.’” The suggestion drew laughter and applause from the crowd, a response that continued as he spoke more about the concept.

“I think the migrant guy might win,” Trump said, adding that White “didn’t like that idea too much.”

“But actually, it’s not the worst idea I’ve ever had,” he continued.

Trump later repeated the idea during a rally Saturday evening in Philadelphia.

Why not? It was good enough for Caligula.

Just Don’t Call Them Losers

Published by digby on June 23, 2024

That’s all it takes to make the cult completely lose it’s collective mind.

Maybe Biden should try that at the debate when Trump gets “tough and nasty” as he says he going to do:

Donald Trump might be eschewing formal preparations for Thursday’s debate — but that doesn’t mean he isn’t thinking about it.

In fact, the former president couldn’t stop talking about his upcoming bout against Joe Biden as he rallied in the president’s adopted home turf of Philadelphia on Saturday night.

Over the course of nearly 90 minutes, Trump interspersed talk of his economic plans and complaints about his criminal conviction in New York with musings about the potentially consequential political clash.

He mocked Biden for holing up behind closed doors at Camp David to prepare for the debate, suggesting the president would turn to illicit substances to boost his performance. He disparaged CNN debate moderators Dana Bash and Jake Tapper, whom he called “Fake Tapper,” to boos from the crowd gathered at an arena on Temple University’s campus.

As he railed against the Manhattan criminal trial in which he was convicted of 34 charges of falsifying business records, he claimed the gag order he’s under could prevent him from answering some of the debate moderators’ questions.

Trump even attempted to crowd-source suggestions for how he should approach Biden: Should he “be tough and nasty” toward his Democratic rival or should he “be nice and calm and let him speak?” (After some crowd reaction, Trump indicated he was favoring the former.)

Still, Trump appeared at least somewhat taken aback when rally-goers roared in response to his question about whether they planned to watch Thursday’s debate in Atlanta.

“I’m shocked,” Trump said, raising his hands. “No, I’m shocked.”

Trump’s rally in Philly yesterday was strangely “light”. In an arena that usually sells out for college basketball, Trump didn’t pull and there are plenty of Trump voters in Pennsylvania. He didn’t pull in Nevada either. You can say it’s the heat and maybe it is but it seems to me that it’s possible the only people who want to hear that tired overdone spiel anymore are the craziest of the Trump crazies — like those in that video above.

Trump is “prepping” for his debate by appearing before friendly crowds and rambling incoherently. Good luck to him.

Shhhhh. Don’t Tell Anyone

Published by digby on June 23, 2024

I know it’s terribly uncool to say that the economy is good and suggest that all the doom and gloom might be caused by something other than the material reality of most Americans. (I sure get a lot of blow back when I suggest such a thing. ) But really, everyone needs to get a grip.

We’ve continued to have really good economic news in recent weeks.

Inflation was ZERO in May. Prices did not rise and the price of many goods fell.

The May jobs report was 50% higher than expected.

The World Bank upped it global growth forecast because of the strength of the American economy.

The Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow tracker has q2 GDP coming in at a very robust 3%

Wage growth remains very strong.

The stock market keeps breaking records.

New data found that crime and murder rates have plummeted, and flows to the border are way down from where they were last year……

I know that housing remains a concern but the building boom should mitigate that in due time as well as an overdue drop in interest rates. But other than that, the economy is hugely improved and polling suggests that people are starting to become aware of that..

Are The Leopards Going To Eat Trump’s Face?

Published by digby on June 23, 2024

This cheered me up to no end:

Arizona delegates to the Republican National Convention gathered this month in a Phoenix suburb, showing up to get to know each other and learn about their duties. Part of the presentation included a secret plan to throw the party’s nomination of Donald Trump for president into chaos.

The instructions did not come from “Never Trumpers” hoping to stop the party from nominating a felon when delegates gather in Milwaukee next month. They instead came from avowed “America First” believers hatching a challenge from the far right — a plot to release the delegates from their pledge to support Trump, according to people present and briefed on the meeting, slides from the presentation and private messages obtained by The Washington Post.

The delegates said the gambit would require support from several other state delegations, and it wasn’t clear whether those allies had been lined up. One idea, discussed as attendees ate finger foods, was for co-conspirators to signal their allegiance to one another by wearing matching black jackets.

Nobody knows exactly what they are trying to do but the speculation is that they want to influence the VP pick and are particularly interested in forcing Trump to choose Michael Flynn. You see, they think Trump has been getting too close to the “deep State and needs to be reined in.

I’m not kidding.

The Trump campaign rushed in to replace the rebel delegates with one staffer apparently telling various Republicans that they considered it an “existential threat” to the nomination. What???

In the end, Dear Leader managed to stave off the rebellion:

The campaign and the Arizona delegates reached an agreement that there would be no disruptions at the convention. Still, suspicions lingered about other state delegations, according to a campaign official who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly. He declined to elaborate.

The fracas exposed the challenges of choreographing next month’s convention in Milwaukee, where some 5,000 delegates and alternates will participate — many of them inclined toward the falsehoods and baseless accusations that animate many of Trump’s supporters.

How shocking that the same conspiracy-laden fools Trump is counting on electing him next fall might be thinking he’s part of the problem instead of the solution.

Some People Can’t Just Get Along

Published by Tom Sullivan on June 23, 2024

Hate never really goes away

I passed one of these back in the 1970s.

Also, Trump’s pal targets civilians in Ukraine.

 

 
Post by @aljazeeraenglish
View on Threads

 

Associated Press:

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — At least three people were killed in a Russian bombing attack on Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv, on Saturday afternoon, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

Another 38 people were wounded in the attack, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said. Four aerial bombs were launched against the city, damaging residential buildings, shops and public transport stops, said Kharkiv regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov. He said that four of the wounded were in serious condition.

“This Russian terror with guided aerial bombs must and can be stopped. Bold decisions from our partners are needed so that we can destroy Russian terrorists and Russian combat aircraft where they are,” Zelenskyy wrote on the messaging app Telegram.

And more:

A fresh attack on Kharkiv killed at least one person and wounded 10 on Sunday, according to local officials. Mayor Ihor Terekhov said the city was attacked by a guided bomb and that around half of Kharkiv was without electricity because of the strike.

Sunday’s attacks came after Russia struck Kharkiv on Saturday afternoon with four aerial bombs, hitting a five-story residential building and killing three people. Regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said that 41 people were still being treated for injuries on Sunday.

I need a vacation.

● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

For The Win, 5th Edition is ready for download. Request a copy of my free countywide GOTV planning guide at ForTheWin.us.

Brain Pudding

Published by Tom Sullivan on June 23, 2024

Unhinged and unbound

I spent an evening once with students in the hallway of a Vienna dorm listening to American rock and drinking bootleg schnapps crafted by somone’s grandfather. The English idiom “bootleg” took some explaining. It led to a long, alcohol-fueled exchange of English and German idioms. One German idiom for insane that stayed with me was, “Er hat nicht alle Tassen im Shrank.” (He doesn’t have all his cups in the cupboard.)

Watching clips from a couple of Donald Trump appearances last night brought that back in a big way.

Perhaps you’ve heard that under Joe Biden our airports are failing and in chaos? People are erecting tent camps because of flight delays, Trump claims. Trump heard something about “people camping out at the airport” because of a delay, put 2 and 2 together and got 5. It’s so crazy, noted Josh Marshall, that the Biden-Harris rapid response account simply reposted the rant without comment.

Trump seems bothered by all the musings about his mental state after his rambling about electric boats and sharks. Rather than pretend he never said it, as he often does, he doubled down and made it worse.

“Wow. His brains are pudding,” commented Spiro’s Ghost. Trump claims genetic brilliance and “aptitude” because he had an uncle who once taught at MIT. Have you heard?

“Jesus H. Christ, Trump. You and the f——- shark,” tweeted former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann. “Just jump the shark. Just jump the goddamned shark. Again.”

Trump has really got it in for power generation technology not based on fossil fuels: windmills, electric cars, etc. Remember his hostility to the Navy shifting its new carriers from steam-driven to electromagnetic launch catapults?

“It sounded bad to me. Digital. They have digital. What is digital? And it’s very complicated, you have to be Albert Einstein to figure it out,” he told Time in 2017. So much for the very stable genius’ aptitiude.

Thus, electric trucks are on Trump’s shit list. Electric: bad. Did you know that unlike electric-powered trucks, diesel-fueled semis can drive from coast to coast without stopping? And yet there are truck stops every few exits.

And water. Trump is obsessed with toilets and showers, convinced none of them work properly because of water conservation. News to you? Me too. He’s added dishwashers to the list.

But Trump’s enemies, of course, are the “sick people.” George Washington did not own slaves. Who knew?

And scum. His enemies are scum.

Especially undocumented immigrants. Recall Trump’s insistence that Mexican migrants are “bad hombres“? Trump now thinks someone should form a “migrant league of fighters.” Gladiators for your entertainiment. Trump suggested the league to UFC President Dana White, Forbes reports.

After condemning Milwaukee, the largest city in a state he must win, Trump went off on Philadelphia, Pennsylvania too. Both heavily Black.

Not that Trump could remember where he was.

At least North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un loves him.

Oh, and prep for this week’s presidential debate? Every accusation a confession? The internet lit up on Saturday after Trump’s suggestion that President Biden will get some sort of performance-enhancing “shot in the ass” before going on stage. *

And Trump’s beautiful body.

Okay. I see I’m way over time.

We know by now that Trump is (choose your idiom) mentally unbalanced. But as Digby mentioned yesterday, you must spend 12 minutes on this MSNBC segment with the head of the Heritage Foundation. The prion disease has spread to the entire MAGA movement.

* Had to add this. Dr. Ronny seems strangely well versed in brain-spiking medications, doesn’t he?

● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

For The Win, 5th Edition is ready for download. Request a copy of my free countywide GOTV planning guide at ForTheWin.us.