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Digby's Hullabaloo Posts

Trump’s Feral Understanding

Published by digby on May 25, 2024

The Bulwark’s resident curmudgeon JV Last offers up a disturbing thought that has certainly been crossing my mind a lot these days. He asks, “what if Trump is right about America?” meaning what if Trump just understands American’s better than the rest of us?

He points to these things Trump has been right about:

(1) Republican voters. For 40 years it was dogma that Republican voters wanted a president who blended social and fiscal conservatism and waited his turn to run.

In 2016, Trump understood that Republican voters no longer wanted any of those things. They wanted the craziest son-of-a-bitch available.

(2) The Republican party. The GOP looked like a formidable, disciplined gatekeeper. Trump understood that it was weak and would go along with whatever a man of pure will demanded of it.

(3) The Conservative movement. For three generations conservatives pretended that they cared about policy ideas, such as restrained spending, small government, free trade, and robust foreign policy. Trump understood that the Conservative movement only cared about triggering libs and that so long as he made liberals unhappy, conservatives would take whatever he gave them.

(4) Presidential politics. National politics has long been forward-looking and results oriented. Voters liked and rewarded presidents who passed legislation and talked about the future instead of re-litigating the past. As president, Trump was indifferent to legislating—his major accomplishments were a tax cut and criminal justice reform. As a 2024 candidate, Trump has basically no legislative proposals and spends most of his time talking about his personal grievances.

What’s more, Joe Biden dedicated his term to passing a string of bills, all of which were popular and many of which were bi-partisan. Voters seem not to care about any of this governing. At all.

Trump understood that American politics had transformed into an attention economy.

(5) COVID. You really aren’t going to like this, but Trump was right about the politics of COVID. At the end of the day, people cared more about the economy than the deaths.

It amazes me that today when people complain about what went wrong during COVID, they talk about business closures, travel restrictions, remote schooling, and sometimes having to wear masks in public parks.

They never talk about the 1 million Americans who died from COVID during the pandemic.

Trump understood that the living do not care about the dead.

He also points out that Trump understood that Americans don’t have the will to defend allies or even maintain “strategic ambiguity” with Taiwan, that impeachment was meaningless and that he had Nikki Haley figured out from the beginning. All true.

I don’t think Trump understood any of this consciously it’s just that he instinctively relates to the right wing base which has been clamoring to be set from from all that ideological mumbo jumbo for years. They want to dress up in costumes and dance and scream about everything they hate. They always have. That’s why talk radio and Newt Gingrich and Fox news and then Trump were instantly popular when they came on the scene.

Trump is one of them and was just too ignorant and narcissistic to know that he was breaking all the political rules. He didn’t know they existed. He is the American id.

Another Extremist Supreme Court Spouse

Published by digby on May 25, 2024

After the “butter emails” debacle you don’t really need this but if you want another example of how editorial choices about what to cover in politics can actually lead to a lack of understanding, here’s a good one:

The wife of Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. told a Washington Post reporter in January 2021 that an upside-down American flag recently flown on their flagpole was “an international signal of distress” and indicated that it had been raised in response to a neighborhood dispute.

Martha-Ann Alito made the comments when the reporter went to the couple’s Fairfax County, Va., home to follow up on a tip about the flag, which was no longer flying when he arrived…

The Post decided not to report on the episode at the time because the flag-raising appeared to be the work of Martha-Ann Alito, rather than the justice, and connected to a dispute with her neighbors, a Post spokeswoman said. It was not clear then that the argument was rooted in politics, the spokeswoman said.

This was right after January 6th and someone on the paper had to know by that time that the wingnuts were using this upside down flag as one of their primary symbols. It appears that nobody asked:

The upside-down flag has long been a sign of distress for the military and protest by various political factions. In the fraught weeks before and after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, it had also been adopted by supporters of the “Stop the Steal” movement,which embraced Donald Trump’s false claims thatJoe Biden stole the election from him. Some of the rioters who participated in the attack had carried upside-down American flags with them.

Mrs Alito seems like such a lovely person:

On Jan. 20, 2021 — the day of Biden’s inauguration, which the Alitos did not attend — Barnes went to their home to follow up on the tip about the flag. He encountered the couple coming out of the house. Martha-Ann Alito was visibly upset by his presence, demanding that he “get off my property.”

As he described the information he was seeking, she yelled, “It’s an international signal of distress!”

Alito intervened and directed his wife into a car parked in their driveway, where they had been headed on their way out of the neighborhood. The justice denied the flag was hung upside down as a political protest, saying it stemmed from a neighborhood dispute and indicating that his wife had raised it.

Martha-Ann Alito then got out of the car and shouted in apparent reference to the neighbors: “Ask them what they did!” She said yard signs about the couple had been placed in the neighborhood. After getting back in the car, she exited again and then brought out from their residence a novelty flag, the type that would typically decorate a garden. She hoisted it up the flagpole. “There! Is that better?” she yelled.

[…]

In Virginia, a neighbor who lives down the street from the Alitos told The Post on May 17 that her adult daughter had placed the protest signs that prompted the dispute with Martha-Ann Alito outside her home in the weeks after the 2020 election. Martha-Ann Alito and the neighbor’s daughter clashed over the signs in January 2021,both the mother and a second neighbor said. The daughter, who now lives on the West Coast, declined an interview request.

Mrs Alito could have shown some forbearance as the spouse of one of the most powerful men in the country who is supposed to be above partisan politics. She could have simply ignored it or argued in person if she was so upset. But she wanted to signal her sympathy with the insurrectionists as a sign of defiance to those who oppose her politics. She is an extremists just like her good friend Ginni. And her husband.

The Post took him at his word and that was that. I wonder if anyone ever thought about that story when this came out in December of 2021:

Thomas and Alito are letting their wives do their blatant partisan activism for them while they use their lifetime appointments to enact their agenda from the bench. Just as Trump is using his surrogates to get around the gag order, these two wingnuts are using their wives to circumvent the rules and the laws they are supposed to be protecting. And since they’re completely shameless, they are daring anyone to do something about it.

The Litigant In Chief Strikes Again

Published by digby on May 25, 2024

Trump is the most public figure in America, possibly the world. And he’s suing to keep a film about him from being released. Defamation law isn’t supposed to protect someone like him but he’s found a way to make it work — for the moment. Threats:

Attorneys for Donald Trump have sent a cease and desist letter to the filmmakers behind “The Apprentice” in an effort to block its U.S. sale and release. It warns the team behind the film not to pursue a distribution deal, according to two people who have read the letter. “The Apprentice,” which looks at Trump’s early years as a real estate developer and his relationship with Roy Cohn, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival this week.

“The film is a fair and balanced portrait of the former president,” the producers of the film said in a statement regarding the cease-and-desist letter. “We want everyone to see it and then decide.”

The movie, which was independently produced, stars Sebastian Stan as Trump and Jeremy Strong as Cohn. It presents a damning portrait of the former president as an ethically compromised, philanderer who stiffs contractors and cuts deals with the mob to get his buildings completed. It includes other controversial details, including a scene where Trump rapes his first wife, Ivana, and depicts him abusing amphetamines to lose weight, as well as undergoing liposuction and plastic surgery.

Trump’s camp responded with a blistering note, threatening legal action. “This ‘film’ is pure malicious defamation, should not see the light of day, and doesn’t even deserve a place in the straight-to-DVD section of a bargain bin at a soon-to-be-closed discount movie store, it belongs in a dumpster fire,” Steven Cheung, Trump campaign communications director, said in a statement.

This might work. I would imagine that the distributors will all be leery of getting into this mess until they see if Trump wins in a few months. If he doesn’t the price will go way down. If he does, it’s not worth the headache from the president who says he wants to be a dictator.

He should understand, however, that the internet exists and this thing is going to get out to the public whether he likes it or not. But he may very well be able to keep it from them long enough to be elected president. His patented legal intimidation is quite effective as we’ve seen with his treatment of former employees — and anyone else who crosses him.

The New York Times Poll Has An Announcement

Published by digby on May 25, 2024

Uhm:

“The polls have shown Donald Trump with an edge for eight straight months, but there’s a sign his advantage might not be quite as stable as it looks: His lead is built on gains among voters who aren’t paying close attention to politics, who don’t follow traditional news and who don’t regularly vote.”

Read that again. Now read this:

“Importantly, these low-turnout voters are often from Democratic constituencies. Many back Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate. But in our polling, Biden wins just three-quarters of Democratic-leaning voters who didn’t vote in the last cycle, even as almost all high-turnout Democratic-leaners continue to support him.”This trend illustrates the disconnect between Trump’s lead in the polls and Democratic victories in lower-turnout special elections. And it helps explain Trump’s gains among young and nonwhite voters, who tend to be among the least engaged. Trump’s dependence on these voters could make the race more volatile soon.”As voters tune in over the next six months, there’s a chance that disengaged but traditionally Democratic voters could revert to their usual partisan leanings. Alternately, they might stay home, which could also help Biden.”

Good to know.

This has actually been known by many of the more optimistic analysts. The model includes all adults or registered voters, many of whom haven’t voted in the last three elections. As we get closer to the election they’ll start focusing on likely voters and that will give us a clearer picture.

By that time half the country will believe that Biden is buried in the polls so far that it’s impossible that Trump could lose. You know what that means …

More Convention Follies

Published by Tom Sullivan on May 25, 2024

This time it’s the Libertarians

ABC News:

A split-screen showdown between the Republican Party’s presumptive presidential nominee, Donald Trump, and independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will occur this weekend at the Libertarian National Convention in Washington, D.C., as each hopeful seeks to court the party’s base.

Kennedy has already addressed the body. Punish yourselves, if so inclined.

Trump speaks today. Some Libertarians it seems are down on authoritarians.

Leaving this right here.

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Controlling The Greensboro Rabble

Published by Tom Sullivan on May 25, 2024

NC GOP gives veterans the boot

Common Defense protests outside NC GOP convention.

After comemmorating Memorial Day with a rally in Greensboro, N.C., Common Defense and  Veterans for Responsible Leadership attempted to deliver a letter to the NC GOP state convention “calling on the GOP and on Donald Trump to reject calls for violence inflammatory rhetoric,” per Cardinal & Pine. Listen to the speeches below.

The latter was a stunt. The camera crew was a giveaway. Here’s how NC Newsline describes the letter effort:

Across the city, the state Republican Party is holding its annual gathering, which will include members of the Republican National Committee, like new co-chair former president Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump. In attendance at the GOP event are multiple individuals, who echo Trump’s doubts about the legitimacy of U.S. elections and his refusal to commit to accepting this year’s results.

The former president, who has displayed an unprecedented disrespect for military service over the years, has also repeatedly threatened violence if the election does not go his way.

We are demanding that Republican leaders now in Greensboro use all their influence to force Donald Trump to renounce these awful and dangerous threats of violence, which have no place in a democracy. Trump must commit to a peaceful and non-violent election season.

We have a duty to our fallen brothers and sisters, whom we honor this weekend. They fought battles abroad so we can live in a country free of such threats. Who among us will not honor their sacrifice?

I have little to add except that, from the video, the NC GOP chose Greensboro’s Koury Convention Center for its convention. It is a venue state Democrats stopped using some years ago, preferring to rent more cost- and donor-conscious space at public schools.

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Friday Night Soother

Published by digby on May 24, 2024

The Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing is a public-private partnership of monumental scope that has leveraged the expertise and leadership of dozens of organizations and institutions to protect and restore wildlife habitats in Southern California. The crossing is currently in construction and is expected to be finished in 2026.

In 2015, the National Wildlife Foundation (NWF) and Caltrans proposed a massive corridor across the 101 freeway in Agoura Hills to provide wildlife with a safe place to cross into other habitats. At the time, the proposed plan was expected to take years to fund and even longer to build. Due to the bridge’s size and cost, its completion would be reliant on donations from the public.

In 2016, Wallis Annenberg and the Annenberg Foundation took up the call for funds and made a $1 million challenge grant to spur the community and local leaders to donate. The grant provided the necessary test assessments by Caltrans to ensure that the bridge would not cause any environmental impact to the surrounding area.

Thanks to the Annenberg Foundation’s challenge grant, the project received donations from more than 3,000 private, philanthropic, and corporate institutions around the world and helped NWF raise enough money to begin construction – initially in the year 2025.

In 2021, Wallis Annenberg and The Annenberg Foundation accelerated donations with a record breaking $25 million challenge grant to the NWF. The ‘Conservation Challenge Grant’ – currently the largest of its kind – serves as a call to philanthropists to help protect a threatened global biodiversity hotspot in Los Angeles. The funds raised were not only enough to fund construction, but moved up the construction timeline to April 22, 2022 – three years earlier than planned.

Construction is now on its way and when built, the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing will be the largest wildlife corridor in the world and will restore habitats and an ecosystem that over time has been degraded by human development. The bridge will allow for wildlife to cross freely over the 101 freeway without the threat of death or accidents, and will ensure the survival of many isolated species.

In honor of LA’s beautiful mountain lions like the late Hollywood star, P-22:

FILE – This Nov. 2014, file photo provided by the U.S. National Park Service shows a mountain lion known as P-22, photographed in the Griffith Park area near downtown Los Angeles. P-22, the celebrated mountain lion that took up residence in the middle of Los Angeles and became a symbol of urban pressures on wildlife, was euthanized after dangerous changes in his behavior led to examinations that revealed poor health and an injury likely caused by a car. (U.S. National Park Service, via AP, File)

Trumpian Torture Tactics

Published by digby on May 24, 2024

That’s from 2016. Look what he does to his female campaign employees who balk at his bullying behavior:

Nearly eight years ago, convinced that she’d been treated unfairly, Jessica Denson sued Donald Trump’s campaign for workplace harassment.

Then she discovered the lengths Trump’s attorneys would go to hit back — and their unwillingness to stop.

Immediately, the campaign filed a counterclaim for $1.5 million. It won a $52,229 judgment, and the campaign froze her bank account and almost forced her into bankruptcy.

She found it humiliating when the campaign lawyers branded her a “judgment debtor” in a subpoena. They monitored her Twitter account, which had 32 followers, and submitted hundreds of pages of printouts to a judge. They even deposed her mother, grilling her about the family’s religious practices.

The judgment was ultimately thrown out by a judge, but her legal fight continues.

The process has been “unbearable,” Denson said, describing the unrelenting pressure she felt from Trump campaign attorneys. “This had become my life. I had no income and had this lien against me. It crippled my ability to work.”

The legal resources deployed to try to crush Denson’s case are not unusual. At least four women of color involved in the 2016 operation have been embroiled in legal fights with the campaign over workplace harassment, discrimination or violations of nondisclosure agreements. They have been subjected to scorched-earth tactics. For years, the Trump campaign has persisted, despite losing consistently, in at least some cases after it was clear that its efforts had damaged the women.

Trump was regularly updated on the women’s cases, according to two people familiar with the matters. In one, he wanted to escalate the dispute by filing a federal defamation lawsuit against the former employee, but his lawyers persuaded him it was best handled through confidential arbitration. Campaign lawyers urged him to settle the ongoing “legacy lawsuits” from 2016 before the 2020 election, but he declined.

Now as Trump engages in another presidential run, a judge’s order in one of those cases may force into public view the new details about staffers who lodged similar accusations. A federal magistrate judge has ordered the campaign to produce by May 31 a list of all discrimination and harassment complaints made during Trump’s 2016 and 2020 presidential runs, allegations that the campaign initially tried to keep confidential through rigorously enforced NDAs. Last year, a federal judge freed 422 employees of the 2016 campaign from confidentiality agreements in a class-action lawsuit brought by Denson, a major crack in the campaign’s strategy.

Why haven’t we known about this before? It seems like a pretty big deal to me. Do other presidential campaigns get dozens of harassment and discrimination lawsuits filed against them? I don’t think so.

Trump and his surrogates have appeared to relish hounding or humiliating women who have verbally crossed him, including media and Hollywood stars and a long list of accusers who have complained over the years about sexual harassment or inappropriate conduct. (He has denied all of the allegations.)

But ProPublica found that Trump’s campaign used similar bullying tactics against its own workers. These fights have been waged out of the public eye against women with few resources to stand up against the campaign’s battery of lawyers, paid from a seemingly bottomless trove of campaign money.

Chalk this up to yet more evidence of Trump’s monstrousness. He is an abusive cult leader as most cult leaders are. And he’s particularly abusive toward women. Apparently, tens of millions of people love him anyway.

It Was Not A Huge Crowd

Published by digby on May 24, 2024

And yet I heard the CNN reporter on the ground talk about how big and diverse the crowd was and how the Biden campaign must be nervous about his appeal in this blue city. They interviewed the rallygoers (aka Trump fans) and earnestly listened as they complained about the economy without pushing back on their erroneous alternative facts. If you were just a casual viewer you would come away with the idea that Biden is in trouble in New York because tens of thousands of Democrats are abandoning Biden.

The Trump people say 25,000 people showed up. It was actually more like 2500.

Populist Heroes

Published by digby on May 24, 2024

Another contender enters the VP ring:

Donald Trump appears to have a few requirements for his running mate, including that whoever it is does what they are told and does not steal the spotlight. He would also prefer an Ivy League pedigree, according to The New York Times, which reported that Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., a Harvard graduate, is now a “top contender.”

According to three anonymous sources who have met with Trump, Cotton is a favorite, alongside North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and three of Cotton’s Senate colleagues: Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Tim Scott, R-S.C., and J.D. Vance, R-Ohio. According to the Times, Trump is also considering the five men for posts in his administration, should he win in November.

Where Cotton is concerned, there are some issues to consider. Trump has privately expressed his admiration for Cotton’s reliability and abilities as an effective communicator, as well as praising the senator’s Army service and his elite education.

But Cotton voted to certify the 2020 presidential election, which could be a dealbreaker for a man who refuses to acknowledge his defeat. Still, Trump has slim pickings, as both Rubio and Scott also voted to certify the results, while Burgum verbally supported former Vice President Mike Pence’s choice to resist Trump’s pressure to overturn the election.

Elise Stefanik went to Harvard and she’s not on the list for some reason. I wonder why?

I had assumed he would want to pick a woman because his biggest problem is with suburban soccer moms. Or I think we all know that he could reach out to Black and Hispanic people with a pick and it might do some good. But when you think about it, isn’t the most likely choice a white guy? This is Trump we’re talking about. He’s a racist who believes in eugenics. He repeated his “racehorse theory” just this week on the stump. And he thinks the best way to hire people is the :central casting” method — does this person look like a Vice President? In his mind, the only people who look like leaders are white men.

I’m thinking it’s going to be Burgum. He got his MBA from Stanford (but who knows if Trump thinks that’s impressive enough.) He’s an energetic brown noser and really does look like he’s out of central casting. Unfortunately, he has more money than Trump which may be a deal breaker. But then, Trump lies about his fortune anyway and would just say he’s richer and Burgum is so desperate to be VP that he’ll probably go along with it.

But maybe Trump wants a Maga-jungen in which case Cotton or Vance are the picks. They are the future of the unending Reich.