#RNC convention

[socialjusticeinamerica]

Maybe Karma will show them this wasn’t a good idea.

[republicansaredomesticterrorists]

[godisarepublican]

Vivek Ramaswamy?

Ron DeSantis is largely ruled out because he's governor of Florida and technically Trump is a resident. But that didn't phase Bush & Cheney, though both were residents of Texas back in 2000...

Apparently you can switch your address even 5 minutes before the Electoral Votes are cast and you're fine...

Just a guess here but I'm thinking that it won't be Mike Pence.

[poliscijunkee5555]

"Milwaukee, where we are having our convention, is a horrible city," Trump said, Punchbowl News reported, without citing a source. CNN also reported that Trump called Milwaukee "horrible," citing an unnamed source.

Maybe the source of his angst is the fact that he’s going to be sentenced the day before the Republican Convention on all 34 guilty verdicts. Trump is a felon and he has had to give up his gun and report to a probation officer. This is not going to be looked upon favorably upon his sentencing as he seems to show no remorse and no sign that he won’t do it again.

[macwantspeace]

Moldy cheese. So, while all the republicans try to spin this, the former guy sinks it. Y'know that a shark was 10 yards away! “It was very clear what I meant,” Trump told Fox News’s Aishah Hasnie. “I said, we’re very concerned with crime. I love Milwaukee, I have great friends in Milwaukee, but it’s, as you know, the crime numbers are terrible. We have to be very careful.”

But that wasn’t all. Instead, Trump seems to feel it was obvious that he meant multiple things by the short insult.

“I was referring to, also, the election, the ballots, the way it went down, it was very bad in Milwaukee. Very, very bad,” Trump continued. “And the people understand that and they agree with me. Everybody agrees. No, that was a fake story that came out.”

“Yeah. Milwaukee has a problem with crime, as do most Democrat-run cities,” he said. “Most Democrat-run cities, almost all of them have problems. But they also have a problem with votes. And election integrity. And that’s what we want to make sure we get straight.” Well then. I hope you understand. He did not say Milwaukee is horrible. He said that all the things about Milwaukee are horrible. Glad we could clear that up.

[lord-radish]

Me seeing Snapcube play Ruff Trigger because she brings it up in the Ratchet and Clank streams I'm still watching as a game she might play in conjunction with the Ratchet and Clank spinoffs she didn't play in the RnC marathon that I am currently watching, thereby possibly indicating more Ratchet and Clank content:

[tomorrowusa]

Milwaukee is host of the upcoming Republican National Convention. It is also the largest city in a state which has voted for the winner in the last four presidential elections.

Despite this, convicted felon Donald Trump went out of his way to insult Milwaukee at a meeting he had with his House Republican stooges.

Former President Trump told House Republicans in a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill Thursday that Milwaukee, the site of the Republican National Convention, is a "horrible city," a GOP lawmaker told Axios. Why it matters: Trump often paints Democratic-led cities as overrun by crime and undocumented immigrants. He has previously alleged — without evidence — that Milwaukee was a hub of voter fraud in the 2020 election.

Trump is a sore loser whose fictitious narrative of a "stolen election" assigns blame to everybody and everything except himself and his incompetence for his 2020 loss. And Milwaukee is part of the cast of characters he villainizes for his loss to Biden.

As with Trump's other accusations of massive vote fraud, there's no evidence to back him up. He's basically just talking out of his ass when he rants histrionically about his loss.

Trump's insult to Milwaukee is yet another sign of his ongoing mental deterioration. Even if he had a valid reason to do so, castigating a city in a must-win state where your party is holding a convention is something only a drunk or a deranged nutjob would do.

A total meltdown by Trump could happen before the election. So Milwaukee should have emergency mental health professionals on standby to treat Trump if that happens during the convention in July.

NOTE: Some of Trump's lickspittles claim that the convicted felon and adjudicated sex offender was actually referring to Milwaukee's crime rate. But according to the Fox News affiliate in Milwaukee, crime is down in the city.

2024 Milwaukee crime data; homicides down 39% in 1st quarter of year

Milwaukee residents should return the the burn and chase Trump out of town next month.

[tinyowlthoughts]

YEEEEEESSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!

Edit to add:

"But this doesn't mean he's going to jail."

You're absolutely right, it doesn't. But you know what it does mean, now that Donald J. Trump, former 45 president of the United States is a convicted felon?

He had to sit there as 12 New Yorkers (the state that 'turned their back' on him) said, 34 times, that he was guilty.

That they didn't believe him.

That they had no faith in his/the defenses version of events.

That they believe he not only cheated on his just-gave-birth wife with a porn star (and damn, is Stormy Daniels a motherfucking star!), but that he also paid her off to hide it before his election.

That they believe Cohen over Trump.

That they think he is a lying sack of shit and weren't afraid to call him out on it (not literally).

Statistically, someone on that jury voted for Trump to be president.

That same person voted for him to be guilty.

And he just had to sit there and take it. No rebuttal. No interruption. No insults or name calling.

He couldn't defend himself, because his defense already failed.

Is he going to jail? Highly unlikely (unless he does something stupid like threaten the jurors/their families/the prosecution/the judge/etc. again, I'm pretty sure the Judge is on his very last tether with Trump).

But the sentencing is July 11.

4 days before the Republican National Convention.

Where it's assumed Trump is going to be their nominee.

Will they nominate a convicted felon?

(...I'm trying to be dramatic and mysterious but let's face it, the RNC would nominate a rotten banana if it was racist and money-grubbing enough.)

What happens in the future is uncertain, but today - right now - Trump WAS convicted.

He is now a convicted felon.

And as a convicted felon there is one very important thing he cannot do.

Vote.

So yeah, he probably won't go to jail, but for now we can just enjoy that 12 New Yorkers called him out to his face and that he, a former president, can't even vote in his own (potential) election.

<3

[ghostpalmtechnique]

The now Trump-controlled RNC has cancelled it's program to encourage mail-in voting among Republicans. The conventional take is that this is stupid. I've just seen an unconventional take that does not seem entirely implausible to me: Trump isn't trying to win the election, he's trying to discredit the electoral process to lay the foundations for another coup attempt if he loses.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Olivia Reingold

Published: Apr 15, 2024

CHICAGO — About 300 anti-war activists crowded into the basement of the Teamsters Union’s headquarters on Saturday to hear organizers from all over the country describe their plans to disrupt the Democratic National Convention this August. Joe Biden’s backing of Israel since Hamas’s October 7 attack has turned these left-wing radicals against their own party.

“It’s really inspiring to see that people are just as enthusiastic, and maybe even more enthusiastic, to march on the DNC as they are to march on the RNC,” says Omar Florez, a Milwaukee-based activist. “We can thank Genocide Joe and our movement for that.”  

But then a man stumbles to the podium, wiping sweat from his forehead. He grabs the microphone to announce that the Islamic regime of Iran has launched missiles and drones heading straight toward Israel.

“They believe that they will be in Palestinian—I don’t call it Israeli—airspace between two and four a.m., which means about two to four hours from now,” he says. “In addition, there are reports of drones having been fired on Israel from Yemen and Iraq.”

The crowd, all wearing black N95s, erupts into applause. Someone in the back lowers their mask to send a celebratory whistle soaring throughout the room.  

The man at the podium, Hatem Abudayyeh, heads the U.S. Palestinian Community Network, “a purported community group which, on information and belief, is an affiliate of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a designated terror organization based in Gaza,” according to a lawsuit over the alleged relations between U.S. advocacy groups and Hamas. 

“This is when this country and the world needs us because the United States is going to, quote unquote, defend the criminal Israeli state,” says Abudayyeh, whose home was raided by the FBI in 2010 as part of an investigation “concerning the material support of terrorism.” 

“We have to assume that the United States is going to try to retaliate against Iran.”

After the boos and calls of “shame” subside, Abudayyeh says it is “incumbent” upon Americans to “stop the United States from expanding this war and hitting Iran.”

“We’ve got to be the strong, powerful anti-war movement that we are,” he says, placing the microphone down and exiting the stage. 

The crowd immediately began chanting, “Hands off Iran.”

A woman in a hot pink gas mask, wielding a matching neon cane and dressed in a “Protect Trans Kids” t-shirt, throws her fist in the air. Nearby, a service poodle is taking a nap under the chair of his owner, who is wearing a leather harness over his t-shirt. Then the group that has joined here from cities across America—Seattle, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles—cheers and claps in celebration. 

Joe Iosbaker, an organizer with the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, which called October 7 a “good turn of events” in its press release about the terrorist attacks, tells me he supports Iran. His organization has since released a statement backing Iran, where citizens gathered to shout “Death to America” during their nation’s strike against Israel Saturday night.

“We demand hands off Iran,” the statement says. “The people have power, and we will exercise it in the streets.” 

Earlier that day, before news of the attack broke, at a “breakout session” on “the anti-war movement,” Shabbir Rizvi, an organizer with Anti-War Committee Chicago, taught participants how to chant “death to Israel” and “death to America” in Farsi. 

“Marg bar Israel,” he chanted, leading a group of about 80 attendees along with him. A man draped in a Soviet flag bearing a gold hammer and sickle clapped his hands. 

A man in a full black denim outfit shouted out behind his N95—“Can we get a ‘marg bar America’?”

“We can get a ‘marg bar America,’ ” Rizvi replied. 

Then Rizvi raised his hand in the air, leading the crowd like a conductor.

“Marg bar America,” they cheered. 

On my way out of the event, I ask a woman smoking a cigarette to fill me in on the latest news regarding Iran’s lobbing of missiles and drones, which were later intercepted with help from forces from France, the U.S., and the UK. Iran said its strike was retaliation for Israel’s hit on the Iranian embassy in Syria earlier this month, which destroyed the consulate building next to the embassy and killed two of Tehran’s top commanders, and that the matter is “concluded”—unless Israel hits back.

“Iran is part of the resistance,” said the woman, who flew in that morning from New Orleans, where she’s been part of an effort to disrupt Israel-bound shipments in her hometown. “Yemen and Iran and Hezbollah, who are also a militant group in Lebanon, and the Syrian government are all parts of the arc of resistance.” 

A smile creeps across her face as she tells me: “They’re part of the arc of resistance because the enemies are Israel and the USA.” 

==

Remember Mahsa Amini? These insane fuckers don't. They've sided with the brutal Islamic Republic of Iran.

They hate our liberal, secular countries and they want to destroy them. They keep telling us who they are. Do you believe them yet?

Revoke citizenship and deport. I wasn't kidding before and I'm still not kidding now.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

John Knefel at MMFA:

Russ Vought, a frequent guest on right-wing media shows and key figure in Project 2025, a broad effort to staff a future Republican administration, will have a top role in drafting the platform for the GOP's convention this July, virtually ensuring the document will be a wishlist of MAGA priorities. The Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign made the joint announcement on May 15, highlighting Vought’s new role “as the committee's policy director” for the RNC’s 2024 Committee on the Platform and noting his previous tenure as director of the Office of Management and Budget under former President Donald Trump. In that position, Vought oversaw the administration’s attempts to remove supposed “critical race theory trainings” from federal programs and sought to coordinate the White House’s directives across the executive branch more broadly. 

[...]

After Trump’s loss in 2020, Vought founded the Center for Renewing America, where he has consistently pushed a Christian nationalist agenda. He has called for an “army” of right-wing activists with “biblical worldview” to serve in the next Republican administration, and wrote an op-ed for Newsweek in 2021 with the headline: “Is There Anything Actually Wrong With 'Christian Nationalism?' As Politico reported, “One ​​document drafted by CRA staff and fellows includes a list of top priorities for CRA in a second Trump term. ‘Christian nationalism’ is one of the bullet points.” 

The Center for Renewing America has emerged as a key player in the MAGA-aligned think tank world. It’s one of the more than 100 conservative groups that make up Project 2025, an effort organized by The Heritage Foundation to provide staffing and policy proposals to a future GOP presidency. Vought plays a central role in the effort, including as the author of a chapter in Project 2025’s guiding document, Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, in which he argued that the “enormous power” of the executive branch should be exclusively the purview of the president rather than dispersed within agencies and departments.

Though that argument may sound anodyne, Vought’s vision has radical implications. First and foremost, Vought advocates for implementing a policy known as “Schedule F,” which would reclassify tens of thousands of federal employees as political appointees — thus stripping them of union protections. If Trump is reelected in November and chooses to go forward with Schedule F, he could fire career civil servants from agencies and departments en masse and replace them hardcore MAGA foot soldiers, potentially decimating the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Labor, the Department of Education, and other frequent right-wing targets. “What we’re trying to do is identify the pockets of independence and seize them,” Vought has said, according to The New York Times.

Center For Renewing America founder and key Project 2025 influencer Russ Vought was appointed to the RNC's Platform Committee for the upcoming convention in Milwaukee this July. #RNC2024

[qqueenofhades]

Do you think Nikki Haley losing to None Of The Above in Nevada will be enough to make her drop out of the race, or is it more likely she’ll stick it out until the RNC this summer?

There's almost no chance that Haley will drop out prior to the Republican SC primary (February 24). It is her home state and she will want to run in that at least, plus she has seemed to get more confident in attacking Trump and fundraising off him losing his shit about her refusing to do so. Which: Haley sucks, obviously, but the more she sticks around and drives the Great Orange Führer insane for refusing to bow down and kiss the ring, and the more she gets her percentage of old school GOP voters determined to never vote for Trump no matter what, is good for us.

Especially after the Republicans' almost-unprecedented levels of clownery in a short 24 hours yesterday, when their continuing slavish attachment to nothing except Trump's bloated orange posterior was made blindingly apparent for all to see, and the DC Circuit strongly upped the odds that he will in fact face a trial before the election, Haley really has no actual reason to drop out now, even if the RNC wants her to. I doubt she'll take it all the way to the convention, and will probably drop out after Super Tuesday. But as I said, the more she sticks it out, the better, both because it drives Trump insane and because the more of her voters she can solidify as Never Trump, the more of those (as they are in fact planning to do in not-inconsiderable percentages) will vote for Biden in November. So yes.

[darkeagleruins]

BREAKING: After receiving an invitation from Trump, Sean O'Brien, the leader of one of the biggest labor unions in the world will be speaking at the RNC Convention. O'Brien is the President of The International Brotherhood of Teamsters with over 1.3 million members This is yet another amazing move from Trump.

Teamsters has many of their members in the biggest swing states, if Trump can activate them, the election is WON big