There’s a very good article about the Venezuelan migrants flown to Martha’s Vineyard, by Judd Legum at Popular Information. Legum found evidence that the migrants were lured on the plane with promises of benefits they weren’t going to get. Authorities in Massachusetts have requested a federal criminal probe of Ron DeSantis.
This weekend Trump had a rally in Ohio that sounds unhinged even by Trump standards. Greg Sargent:
Donald Trump’s weekend rally in Ohio had no shortage of dark and disturbing moments: He mocked GOP Senate nominee J.D. Vance for “kissing my ass,” called for Singapore-style executions of drug dealers and enjoyed a moment of ritualistic crowd adulation set to what sounded like a QAnon song.
Yeah, I’m sure Mitch appreciated seeing Trump’s chosen GOP Senate candidate trashed. Good move.
But Trump also delivered a deeply serious message with real-world implications. He fully expects a GOP Congress to use its power to place him outside the reach of any and all investigations and prosecutions, now and into the future. …
… These are not idle ravings. They are better understood as a directive, as a declaration of what Trump actually does expect a GOP-controlled Congress to do for him. And you will hear this more as Trump holds rallies for other House and Senate candidates….
This was all about signaling to the GOP that they’d better protect him from prosecution, or his wackadoo cult followers will withhold their votes.
Trump gravitates toward what secures his deepest and surest hold over his supporters. He’s in a mutually reinforcing cycle of radicalization with his most ardent followers.
It also seems likely that his rapidly intensifying legal exposure and predicament are fueling this shift. The Q fantasy has always been based on belief in a corrupt and evil liberal “deep state” which will result to all manner of criminality and threats and crimes against Trump before finally being vanquished in a dramatic turning of the tables in which Trump gets his violent revenge against his enemies.
Trump and his supporters have created a dynamic in which the predictable and perhaps inevitable result of his own criminal behavior now validates their narrative about his persecution and inevitable violent triumph over his foes. It also makes Trump’s reliance on the hardcore of MAGA/QAnon supporters more of an all-or-nothing thing.
See also Will Bunch, This QAnon-flavored soundtrack to Trump, GOP’s fascist right turn should terrify you.
I suspect posting will be light this week because I now have covid and feel awful. Wish me luck with this.
Take care of yourself Barbara. Rest well, we'll all still be here when you get better. Taking care of you is the most important thing right now.
I hope your brush with COVID is minor.
I received a fund-raising email from my governor, Gavin Newsom, who feels secure enough in his re-election bid to spend some $ trolling the right wingers:
Alas I can’t (easily) share his images. The one(s) in Texas say “Texas Doesn’t Own Your Body. You Do.”
The billboards feature a link to this site.
As for TFG, it’s great that he’s getting more and more unhinged, reaching into deep fantasy-land for his followers, as those a bit moored to reality are either in jail or are waking up from his spell. Also great that he’s more clearly signaling to the authorities his intentions. This moment is getting closer and closer to reality.
“Texas Doesn’t Own Your Body. You Do”: Newsom Places Provocative Abortion Access Billboard Ads In 7 Red States (yahoo.com)
Get well soon. I will have to watch the Confederates descend into madness on my own for a while.
Barbara,
Hope your symptoms are mild and the duration short. My dau got it earlier this year – it sucks.
Re the "Grand Bargain" from Greg Sargent… the last sentence. "Now, Trump is proposing a new bargain: his base in exchange for absolute impunity."
Trump's lawyers are having to get lawyers – two of them n serious trouble from the MAL raid. Good lawyers don't want to touch tRump. – the attrition is damn serious and the sheer volume of criminal and civil cases is only mounting. So tRump wants immunity.
The threat by TFG is to withhold support for GOP candidates who do not/will not weaponize Congress to protect TFG now! Greg observed that beyond harassment, the GOP can't do much even if they take the House. Using Congress to stop investigation or prosecution is not treating citizens equally. (I think it will work against GOP candidates to use the legislative branch to kneecap the justice system FOR ONE MAN.) The jury system is where TFG is given equal status with every opportunity to show he is innocent. Millions of Americans have faced that – why can't TFG?
I think the GOP will conspire to ensure TFG is convicted and imprisoned to whatever degree they can do it behind the scenes. The tide is turning against the GOP with draconian abortion laws. Carving out exemptions for TFG puts the "law and order" reputation of the Republican party at risk – they are being directed to short-circuit the system openly. TFG is dragging the party so far right that there are only two options. With tRump in charge, GOP stays openly radical – anti-women – anti-minority – anti-Semitic – tethered to Christian Nationalism they will stay in the minority. OR, the party will split, and stay in the minority.
If TFG is silenced (and prison will shut him up) and the GOP pretends it's a raw deal, they can ignore Trumpism and go back to business as it was before Trump. On the current trajectory, TFG will destroy the party but the GOP can not directly oppose him.
Over on kos I saw an estimate of 13 mil TFG dead-enders. That is a lot of trouble, considering that the dead-enders are driving the Titanic that is the GOP, I suspect that this all is a giant bag-holder scheme where the "very specials" are left with the bill for the destruction of the ship of state as Orange Jesus in his not-so-secret lifeboat with his "really smart" son and Jr and shoot the other MAGA crabs as they clamor for a seat in the brown-nose musical chairs derby and transcend into exile to Russia, with love and the country burns.
Or, Orange Jesus let his crazies loose to just turn the country into a smoking wreck and being elected king of kings.
So, because I am not the smartest guy in the room, and I am super curious (asking for a friend, too) and my question is where does that leave the average citizen? Do they have rights as well, or just the right to be a statistic for stochastic terrorism.
Funny, I am an old dude who reads the kos.
For you, and your friend – this has to play out. I don't think the ship of state is doomed. The GOP might be. If you are asking if there's a guarantee you (or I) won't be victims of domestic terrorism, – nope. We might not survive. But the odds are in our favor in a lot of ways.
Thirteen million dead-enders is not good and it might be an accurate number. The population of the US is about 336 million so the dead-enders are what, 3.8%. And that would be a frightening number but the feds have infiltrated the organized groups. (Note that Gov. Whitmer wasn't kidnapped because the plot was blown from the inside.)
The really good news is that the psychology of the cult is not stable. They've projected their hopes and expectations on Trump. If there was a designated heir with Trump's blessing, there might be continuity but The Donald is in love only with himself. He's fostered competition, a jello wrestling match, featuring Ted Cruz, Miss Lindsey, Ron DeSantis, and a host of wanna-bes. When tRump is gone, they will eat each other while the pros like McConnell try to rebuild a functional conservative party.
Yeah, there's a Titanic and they hit the berg. But it's not the USA and it's not democracy. It will be ugly and violent but eventually, things will stabilize with a functional liberal party dominating and a conservative party rebuilding. And there's the potential for reform there. A functional conservative party will have to discard the kooks. To establish parity, the conservative party will HAVE to move to the center. That means passing the ERA and Immigration Reform. Because there's no way the numbers work if the conservative party cant' recruit women and Hispanics.
The REALLY good news is that a conservative party close to the center pushes the democrats FAR left. Things might get done to nullify the electoral college (we're not far from it) ban gerrymandering and push big money out of politics. Before I die, I hope.
Things are in flux – no guarantees – but the outcome might be very good. Tell your friend to be prepared for that possibility, too.
Yes, I agree that things will grind through, after the wingers shoot up the place, but me and my own will receive a tremendous amount of grief in TFGs "grand bargain"… we get the short end of the stick because of the wreckage the GOP has wrought to our communities and because of how ugly their virtue signaling "gotcha!!" politics are.
Barbara,
Get well and prosper.
Take the Paxlovid and get someone to deliver an 8-pack of peppermint lifesavers to cope with Paxlovid mouth.
Get well soon, Barbara.
Getting healthy becomes the priority goal.
Projection may be an ego defense mechanism according to Sigmund, but not the defense anyone but the choir would not see right through. Chief emeritus Tietoolong needs new tricks. Listing toward Qwazzy a bad move also. He is one of the old dogs that cannot learn new tricks it seems.
Being well over 70, I’d rather avoid COVID. Sorry to hear you got it.
My hope is that TFG shows himself so whack-a-doodle and selfish that a sufficient number of lighter afflicted rightists peel off the crazy train and let a sufficient margin of Democrats and Independents pass necessary legislation to deal with very pressing problems. Do hate living in an absurd movie that’s just one cliff-hanger after another.
Om bhaishajye bhaishajye bhaishajya samudgate svaha!
Get well soon, and rest as long as you can, as someone wrote above, "we'll still be here."
But, we'll miss you, all the same.
Trump, Trump family, and Trump company hit by massive civil suit from the state of New York. Trump claims, without evidence, this criminal behavior is being charged only for political reasons. If you buy that you need serious levels of buyer remorse. He must really believe anything is OK if you're a republican. We will soon see if that perception is a judicial reality. I am sure, in reality, this suit will deter he and his family's business dealings, as most bankers, investors, and customers demand some standard of honest business practices. What a pack of lies they uncovered.