#Republicans US Politics Donald Trump Barack Obama White House

[mariacallous]

Barely more than a week ago, it seemed as though the Washington political class and their big-money counterparts in New York had all but written off Kamala Harris, on the basis of what, exactly, I was never sure, given the essentially unmoving polls and the absence of any notable events that might have changed large numbers of minds. Nate Silver’s prediction model had Donald Trump with a lead from mid-October through the end of the month; on October 24th, the Democratic super PAC Future Forward privately projected that Harris’s probability of winning was down to just thirty-seven per cent, according to the Washington Post, before it claimed to see a late shift in her direction in recent days. The point is: forget the noise. Amid all this, it seems best to heed the adage of Jim Messina, the Democratic strategist who managed Barack Obama’s 2012 reëlection campaign: “Don’t pay attention to Washington conventional wisdom, Wall Street conventional wisdom, or Nate Silver.”

This is especially the case given the stakes—2024 is nothing like a repeat of Obama versus Mitt Romney. America would be lucky to have that kind of sane choice. Instead, it is Trump’s possible return to the White House that looms when the polls open on Tuesday morning. In such a situation, it strikes me as almost irresponsible to succumb to the undeniably positive rumblings that have tentatively begun to emerge from Trump’s opponents, no matter how seductive or psychologically soothing we may find the photos of empty seats at the ex-President’s latest campaign rallies. (The lead headline on the Drudge Report as I’m writing this: “Last Days of the Don?”) In truth, we are all survivors of 2016; the shock of Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton casts a long shadow over any predictions today about a woman on the brink of winning the American Presidency.

At a minimum, it just seems like a poor strategy of self-care, with so many indicators of a dead-heat race, to read too much certainty into the increasing number of political observers predicting that—the margin of error and Silver be damned—Harris is on track for a historic victory. If that is, in fact, what happens, great—let’s make sure to give those predictors due credit. I’m thinking of you, James Carville, Matthew Dowd, Paul Glastris, Mark McKinnon, and all those #BlueWave tweeters who got on the bandwagon before the past twenty-four hours. If Harris wins Iowa, the legend of Ann Selzer will justifiably be burnished by the decision to publish, on Saturday night, a shocking and unexpected poll for the Des Moines Register giving Harris a three-point lead in the state, which Trump has won twice by large margins. In the meantime, it’s probably best to consider the survey a highly pleasant outlier rather than proof that the senior women of the Midwest are about to deal a crippling blow to Trump’s frat-party-from-hell of a campaign.

Republicans, with their congenitally overconfident candidate and an entire political operation premised on telling the Republican electorate that Trump’s defeat is literally impossible, have a different problem. How do you prepare your team for a loss that, in a dead heat, has a real chance of happening? (Whether the G.O.P., the party of literal election denialism for the past four years, is willing to acknowledge such a defeat is another matter entirely—one that may well consume the seventy-six days between now and the January 20th Inauguration of a new President, but that is not a today problem.) For months, Trump has said variations of “Harris cannot win. It is impossible.” So, it was treated as news on Monday morning when Axios obtained an internal memo from one of the Trump campaign’s managers, Susie Wiles, using phrases like “should we be victorious” and “God willing,” which seemed to leave open the possibility of a Trump loss. And then there was the ambiguous statement from the candidate himself, who, when asked by ABC’s Jonathan Karl about the possibility of not winning, claimed that he had a “substantial lead,” but also replied, “I guess you could lose, can lose. I mean, that happens, right?”

All of which is to say—we still don’t really know what is going to happen. But what we do know is that these are the final hours that Trump will spend as a Presidential candidate, assuming—big asterisk here—that he keeps his word not to run again. Flying across the country, from North Carolina to Pennsylvania, from Georgia to Michigan and back again, Trump has ended his campaign career with such erratic behavior and alarming statements that they should not be overlooked and subsumed by the understandable obsession with trying to figure out what’s going to happen on Tuesday.

The temptation is, with the election so close, simply to forget about whatever he’s threatening and just hope that he loses. But I say losing is not enough; 2020 and Trump’s unequivocal defeat by Joe Biden did not spell the end of his political career. We cannot assume that it would this time, either.

Because Trump, even if he loses, will have proved once again that he holds an entire political party in his thrall. He will have proved that tens of millions of Americans will follow him even past the point of inciting an insurrection against the U.S. Capitol. He will have proved that the most vicious campaign of lies, misogyny, racism, and xenophobia ever waged—and yes, I am including his previous two campaigns—was not enough to stop nearly half the country from supporting him. Even in a best-case scenario of Trump accepting defeat—I will not fantasize about him gracefully conceding, which seems to be a fantastical outcome from a man who still believes he was robbed of proper accolades for his cameo in “Home Alone 2”—there remains the matter of his various pending criminal cases; what more evidence could we need to believe that Trump is prepared to do anything, up to and including torching the American political system, to avoid incarceration?

So take note: as Trump travelled the nation in his final push asking to be the only convicted felon in history to serve as President, he called Democrats “demonic” and repeatedly threatened to go after the “enemies within” and mused openly about inflicting violence on those enemies, whether Liz Cheney or members of the “fake news,” who, as he put it in a particularly vituperative rally speech in Pennsylvania on Sunday morning, might well come into the line of fire if someone were to go after him. “I don’t mind,” Trump said, of a would-be assassin taking a shot at the press. In just the past few days, he has promised a new Administration that will be “nasty.” He has vowed to “protect the women of our country . . . whether the women like it or not.” He has attacked Harris in vile personal terms and apparently agreed to unleash the science-denialism of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., on the entire U.S. health system. Tired Trump is often the most revealing version of Trump, and so perhaps it’s no mistake that at that Pennsylvania rally, Trump finally admitted publicly what he had privately told some of his advisers four years ago—that he did not willingly depart the White House after his 2020 defeat. “I shouldn’t have left,” he said.

Trump’s 2024 campaign of vengeance was born out of that moment. No matter what anyone says, it is not over yet.

[deadpresidents]

Joe Biden has been one of America's most consequential presidents, as well as a dear friend and partner to me. Today, we've also been reminded — again — that he's a patriot of the highest order. Sixteen years ago, when I began my search for a vice president, I knew about Joe’s remarkable career in public service. But what I came to admire even more was his character — his deep empathy and hard-earned resilience; his fundamental decency and belief that everyone counts.

Since taking office, President Biden has displayed that character again and again. He helped end the pandemic, created millions of jobs, lowered the cost of prescription drugs, passed the first major piece of gun safety legislation in 30 years, made the biggest investment to address climate change in history, and fought to ensure the rights of working people to organize for fair wages and benefits. Internationally, he restored America’s standing in the world, revitalized NATO, and mobilized the world to stand up against Russian aggression in Ukraine.

More than that, President Biden pointed us away from the four years of chaos, falsehood, and division that had characterized Donald Trump’s administration. Through his policies and his example, Joe has reminded us of who we are at our best — a country committed to old-fashioned values like trust and honesty, kindness and hard work; a country that believes in democracy, rule of law, and accountability; a country that insists that everyone, no matter who they are, has a voice and deserves a chance at a better life.

This outstanding track record gave President Biden every right to run for re-election and finish the job he started. Joe understands better than anyone the stakes in this election — how everything he has fought for throughout his life, and everything that the Democratic Party stands for, will be at risk if we allow Donald Trump back in the White House and give Republicans control of Congress.

I also know Joe has never backed down from a fight. For him to look at the political landscape and decide that he should pass the torch to a new nominee is surely one of the toughest in his life. But I know he wouldn’t make this decision unless he believed it was right for America. It’s a testament to Joe Biden’s love of country — and a historic example of a genuine public servant once again putting the interests of the American people ahead of his own that future generations of leaders will do well to follow.

We will be navigating uncharted waters in the days ahead. But I have extraordinary confidence that the leaders of our party will be able to create a process from which an outstanding nominee emerges. I believe that Joe Biden’s vision of a generous, prosperous, and united America that provides opportunity for everyone will be on full display at the Democratic Convention in August. And I expect that every single one of us are prepared to carry that message of hope and progress forward into November and beyond.

For now, Michelle and I just want to express our love and gratitude to Joe and Jill for leading us so ably and courageously during these perilous times — and for their commitment to the ideals of freedom and equality that this country was founded on.

-- Former President Barack Obama's statement on President Biden's announcement, July 21, 2024.

[posttexasstressdisorder]

Politics

Donald Trump Claims Kamala Harris ‘Happened to Turn Black’ in Stunning Slur

NEW LOW

In an explosive interview at the National Association of Black Journalists convention, Trump—challenged over his racist rhetoric—claimed the line of questioning was “disgraceful.”

KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/AFP via Getty

Former President Donald Trump claimed Kamala Harris “turned Black” in an explosive on-stage interview Wednesday at the National Association of Black Journalists Convention in Chicago.

“She was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage,” Trump said. “I didn't know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black. And now she wants to be known as Black. So I don't know, is she Indian or is she Black?”

“I respect either one, but she obviously doesn’t,” Trump said. “She was Indian all the way, and then all of a sudden she made a turn and she became a Black person.”

ABC News’ Rachel Scott challenged Trump, and said that Harris had always identified as a Black woman, and had attended a Historically Black College. (Harris graduated from Howard University in 1986.)

The comments came after Scott pressed Trump on the GOP’s continued attacks on Harris as a “DEI hire” and his choice of Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) as his vice presidential pick. After Trump was asked if he agreed with the Republicans who consider VP Harris a DEI pick, he falsely claimed Harris only recently began identifying as a Black woman.

His attacks mirrored a 2019 GOP-led campaign that questioned whether Harris was an “American Black,” as her mother is Indian and her father is Jamaican. Then-candidate Joe Biden chastised the racist barbs, and Harris compared it to the birtherism attacks Barack Obama faced.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre quickly clapped back at Trump’s comments at the NABJ convention, calling his questioning “repulsive” and “insulting” during a White House press briefing.

“Only she (Harris) can speak to her experience, only she can speak to what it’s like,” Jean-Pierre said. “She is the vice president of the United States and we have to put some respect on her name.”

However, Trump later doubled down on his words via Truth Social, writing: “Crazy Kamala is saying she’s Indian, not Black. This is a big deal. Stone cold phony. She uses everybody, including her racial identity!”

In a combative appearance at the convention, Trump first attacked Scott who questioned him about his past racist rhetoric in a conversation that immediately, and consistently, went off the rails.

The former president spent over half an hour attacking Black journalists, the NABJ that hosted him, as well as Harris' own identity, in an appearance that was intended to defend his record for Black Americans, and his agenda for a second term.

The former president, appearing more than an hour after the conversation’s scheduled noon Central Time start, sat down with the trio of Scott, Fox News’ Harris Faulkner, and Semafor’s Kadia Goba.

In response to Scott asking why Black voters should be Trump about his record of questioning Nikki Haley and Barack Obama’s birthplaces, attacking Black journalists and attorneys, using racist language, and wining and dining with white supremacists, Trump launched into a tirade.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been asked a question in such a horrible matter,” he told Scott, calling ABC News a “fake news network.” “I think it’s disgraceful.”

Trump then used the question to attack NABJ for the late start time, claiming they “couldn’t get their equipment working or something.” He claimed he was told either President Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris would also appear and that he couldn’t appear virtually. Therefore, he claimed, he was invited under “false pretenses,” making the incisive question even worse.

“I think it’s a very rude introduction,” Trump said. “I don’t know exactly why you would do something like that.”

“I have been the best president for Black Americans since Abraham Lincoln,” Trump said to raucous laughter.

Trump also defended the Jan. 6 rioters (saying he would pardon them if they were innocent—“They’ve been convicted,” Scott said), and doubled down on his belief that migrants entering the country from the southern border are taking ���Black jobs.” Trump also said he would be willing to take a cognitive test, and speculated that Harris would fail the exam.

Queries from Faulkner and Goba ranged from meandering to direct, with Trump’s different opinions about the moderators coming through in his answers. He praised Faulkner, a Fox News veteran who interviewed him hours before the July 13 assassination attempt, as a “fantastic person” whose success he respects.

He also thanked Goba, who interviewed him in June on his relationship with the Black community, for asking her question about Republicans’ judgments of people’s personal lives in a “friendly manner.”

The conversation shut down abruptly after roughly 30 minutes of questions from the moderators, although it was originally billed as a 60 minute Q&A.

Later on Truth Social, Trump said he “crushed” the panel. “The questions were Rude and Nasty, often in the form of a statement, but we CRUSHED IT!”

Jelani Cobb, the Dean of Columbia School of Journalism, said he knew going into the conversation that it was likely a “bad” idea.

“The traditional objective of interviewing a candidate is to get clarification on their positions, Cobb said. “And I was skeptical that it would happen—and it didn’t happen.”

Cobb said the conversation ending abruptly without a Q&A from the audience was the most problematic part of the program.

“If you’re going to have a candidate like that, you should have a Q&A from the audience,” Cobb said. “This is a room full of journalists, and some of the best journalists in the county, so we should have questions from the floor.”

The conversation took place in a meeting hall right outside the hotel’s gold-encrusted grand ballroom, nearly every one of the rooms’ 1,000 seats were filled. A small group of protesters not attending the convention gathered outside the entrance of the hotel.

Trump’s last-minute appearance at the convention prompted waves of backlash from top Black journalists and NABJ officials alike. Reporters including frequent Trump target April Ryan and Jemele Hill questioned the merits of inviting the former president, while Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah resigned from her post as convention co-chair after Trump’s appearance was announced.

NABJ officials, including President Ken Lemon, tried to defend the decision by noting a tradition of inviting presidential candidates during an election year and the opportunity for Trump to face questions from top Black journalists. Those defenses, however, faced further scrutiny after a Tuesday report indicated the group rejected requests from Harris’ campaign for her to appear for a virtual chat during the convention or for an in-person session at a later date.

Harris will appear for an NABJ Q&A in September, the group announced on Wednesday.

[ridenwithbiden]

BARACK OBAMA

"Joe Biden has been one of America’s most consequential presidents, as well as a dear friend and partner to me. Today, we’ve also been reminded — again — that he’s a patriot of the highest order.

Sixteen years ago, when I began my search for a vice president, I knew about Joe’s remarkable career in public service. But what I came to admire even more was his character — his deep empathy and hard-earned resilience; his fundamental decency and belief that everyone counts.

Since taking office, President Biden has displayed that character again and again. He helped end the pandemic, created millions of jobs, lowered the cost of prescription drugs, passed the first major piece of gun safety legislation in 30 years, made the biggest investment to address climate change in history, and fought to ensure the rights of working people to organize for fair wages and benefits. Internationally, he restored America’s standing in the world, revitalized NATO, and mobilized the world to stand up against Russian aggression in Ukraine.

More than that, President Biden pointed us away from the four years of chaos, falsehood, and division that had characterized Donald Trump’s administration. Through his policies and his example, Joe has reminded us of who we are at our best — a country committed to old-fashioned values like trust and honesty, kindness and hard work; a country that believes in democracy, rule of law, and accountability; a country that insists that everyone, no matter who they are, has a voice and deserves a chance at a better life.

This outstanding track record gave President Biden every right to run for re-election and finish the job he started. Joe understands better than anyone the stakes in this election — how everything he has fought for throughout his life, and everything that the Democratic Party stands for, will be at risk if we allow Donald Trump back in the White House and give Republicans control of Congress.

I also know Joe has never backed down from a fight. For him to look at the political landscape and decide that he should pass the torch to a new nominee is surely one of the toughest in his life. But I know he wouldn’t make this decision unless he believed it was right for America. It’s a testament to Joe Biden’s love of country — and a historic example of a genuine public servant once again putting the interests of the American people ahead of his own that future generations of leaders will do well to follow.

We will be navigating uncharted waters in the days ahead. But I have extraordinary confidence that the leaders of our party will be able to create a process from which an outstanding nominee emerges. I believe that Joe Biden’s vision of a generous, prosperous, and united America that provides opportunity for everyone will be on full display at the Democratic Convention in August. And I expect that every single one of us are prepared to carry that message of hope and progress forward into November and beyond.

For now, Michelle and I just want to express our love and gratitude to Joe and Jill for leading us so ably and courageously during these perilous times — and for their commitment to the ideals of freedom and equality that this country was founded on."

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday appointed two far-right Republicans to the powerful House Intelligence Committee, positioning two close allies of Donald Trump who worked to overturn the 2020 presidential election on a panel that receives sensitive classified briefings and oversees the work of America’s spy agencies.

The appointments of GOP Reps. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Ronny Jackson of Texas to the House Intelligence Committee were announced on the House floor Wednesday. Johnson, a hardline conservative from Louisiana who has aligned himself with Trump, was replacing spots on the committee that opened up after the resignations of Republican Reps. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin and Chris Stewart of Utah.

Committee spots have typically been given to lawmakers with backgrounds in national security and who have gained respect across the aisle. But the replacements with two close Trump allies comes as Johnson has signaled his willingness to use the full force of the House to aid Trump’s bid to reclaim the Oval Office. It also hands the hard-right faction of the House two coveted spots on a committee that handles the nation’s secrets and holds tremendous influence over the direction of foreign policy.

Trump has long displayed adversarial and flippant views of the U.S. intelligence community, flouted safeguards over classified information and directly berated law enforcement agencies like the FBI. The former president faces 37 felony counts for improperly storing in his Florida estate sensitive documents on nuclear capabilities, repeatedly enlisting aides and lawyers to help him hide records demanded by investigators and cavalierly showing off a Pentagon “plan of attack” and classified map.

Johnson did not release a statement on his picks for the committee.

Perry, who formerly chaired the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus, was ordered by a federal judge last year to turn over more than 1,600 texts and emails to FBI agents investigating efforts to keep Trump in office after his 2020 election loss and illegally block the transfer of power to Democrat Joe Biden.

Perry’s personal cellphone was also seized by federal authorities who have explored his role in helping install an acting attorney general who would be receptive to Trump’s false claims of election fraud.

Perry and other conservatives have also pushed Congress to curtail a key U.S. government surveillance tool. They want to restrict the FBI’s ability to use the program to search for Americans’ data.

“I look forward to providing not only a fresh perspective, but conducting actual oversight — not blind obedience to some facets of our Intel Community that all too often abuse their powers, resources, and authority to spy on the American People,” Perry said in a statement.

Jackson, who was elected to the House in 2020, was formerly a top White House physician under former presidents Barack Obama and Trump. Known for his over-the-top pronouncements about Trump’s health, Jackson was nominated by Trump to be the secretary of Veterans Affairs.

He withdrew his nomination amid allegations of professional misconduct. An internal investigation at the Department of Defense later concluded that Jackson made “sexual and denigrating” comments about a female subordinate, violated the policy on drinking alcohol on a presidential trip and took prescription-strength sleeping medication that prompted worries from his colleagues about his ability to provide proper medical care.

Jackson has denied those allegations and described them as politically motivated.

The House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol also requested testimony from Jackson as it looked into lawmakers’ meetings at the White House, direct conversations with Trump as he sought to challenge his election loss and the planning and coordination of rallies. Jackson declined to testify.

The presence of Jackson and Perry on the committee could damage the trust between the president and the committee in handling classified information, said Ira Goldman, a former Republican congressional aide who worked as a counsel to the intelligence committee in the 1970s and 1980s.

He said, “You’re giving members seats on the committee when, based on the public record, they couldn’t get a security clearance if they came through any other door.”

[tomorrowusa]

Vice President Harris visited The View this week. The segment above is where the topic of Trump's misinformation about hurricanes and disaster response comes up.

Trump is an incessant liar and unfortunately that has been largely normalized in the media. But now his malignant lies have the potential to harm great numbers of people whose lives have already been turned upside down.

And Trump has a long history of spewing bullshit about disasters – the more unscientific and reality-free, the better.

Trump has long peddled misinformation in natural disaster responses

Donald Trump falsely claimed as president that “cleaning” forests would prevent California wildfires. He showed Americans a doctored hurricane map, altered with a Sharpie to bolster an inaccurate tweet about the storm’s path. He said the calculated death toll of Hurricane Maria had been inflated, which was untrue. And in recent days, he has incorrectly said that the Biden administration can’t adequately respond to Hurricane Helene because it used its disaster funds for migrants. In office and now as a candidate, Trump has repeatedly responded to natural disasters by peddling misinformation that can obscure the reality on the ground. [ ... ] Alex Conant, a Republican strategist who worked in the Bush White House during Katrina, recalled a previous era when natural disasters weren’t as politicized — noting, for example, that New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie warmly greeted President Barack Obama after Superstorm Sandy in 2o12. “Historically, hurricanes are a time where politicians like to put partisanship aside and show they’re focused on the greater good,” he said. “Trump does not have that instinct at all and he’s so controversial that Democrats don’t have that instinct with him either.” Over the years, Trump also has a record of taking steps that disaster victims have perceived as insensitive, such as tossing paper towels out to a crowd of Puerto Ricans or claiming that California firefighters weren’t properly battling wildfires. When it comes to Helene’s aftermath, federal responders face logistical and terrain challenges, with damage spread across six states and a still-mounting death toll of at least 230. Some residents in more remote areas have said assistance was slow. And while FEMA has enough money for the immediate response, the agency needs more funding from lawmakers for long-term recovery efforts. [ ... ] Tim Frazier, faculty director of the emergency and disaster management program at Georgetown University, said getting factual information to both people affected by disasters and those responding to them is a top priority in a high-stakes situation — something that can be hindered by politicization. “Getting politics out of disasters and emergency management is really critical,” Frazier said. “It’s dangerous, it doesn’t help, and it certainly makes the job of our disaster responders, our first responders, more difficult.” [ ... ] In 2017, the Trump administration moved faster to help hurricane victims in Texas than in Puerto Rico, a Politico investigation found. In 2018, Trump reportedly balked at approving disaster aid for blue California until he was told that Republican-leaning areas were affected. In 2020, when Michigan was enduring disastrous flooding, Trump threatened to withhold funding in the state because he was displeased with officials’ plan to send out absentee voting applications. His administration withheld $20 billion in disaster recovery funds for Puerto Rico and blocked a federal investigation into why those funds had not been released, the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s inspector general found. Trump has for years mischaracterized wildfires, claiming that California wasn’t using enough water to fight fires and incorrectly blaming forest management for wildfires. He has suggested fires could be prevented by raking forest floors, cast doubt on climate change science in one 2020 meeting with state officials, and suggested that California should wet its forests. All are claims that scientists say show a misunderstanding of how fires spread and are fought.

In other words, Trump is a total idiot. Ask people who are still undecided or wavering if they would really want a doofus like Trump leading disaster response efforts if a major catastrophe hit their area.

You know that somebody is detached from reality if he tries to change the path of a hurricane with a Sharpie.

In 2019, Trump incorrectly warned Americans that Alabama was in the path of Hurricane Dorian — then, in a White House video, displayed a doctored hurricane map that had been altered with a marker to make the hurricane look like it was indeed headed to the state, though no threat to Alabama existed. Trump doubled down on the claim in the following days on Twitter, forcing the National Weather Service to broadcast that Alabama would not be hit. The White House was later found by the Commerce Department inspector general to have pressured the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to back Trump’s erroneous claims and disavow Weather Service meteorologists.

[head-post]

Barack Obama to campaign for Kamala Harris in US swing states

Former US President Barack Obama will be travelling to the battleground states for Kamala Harris. He will begin his tour from the state of Pennsylvania next week, US media reported.

Obama will hold his first event in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania next Thursday, kicking off a blitz through several “Rust Belt” and “Sun Belt” states that are likely to decide the outcome of the 2024 election.

Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, Wisconsin, Michigan, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia and Pennsylvania are the seven states that will hold elections this cycle. According to the latest RealClearPolitics polling average, Harris, 59, and Trump, 78, are separated by less than 2 percentage points in each of those states.

Obama, 63, reportedly played a leading role in a behind-the-scenes pressure campaign to get President Joe Biden to end his reelection campaign. He will appear in the state after Republican nominee Donald Trump returns Saturday to Butler, the Pennsylvania town where he was assassinated in July.

Obama remains one of the Democrats’ most influential surrogates, second perhaps only to his wife Michelle Obama. His return to the campaign trail followed a rousing speech at the Democratic National Convention in August, in which he introduced Harris as a promising figure and the natural heir to his diverse, youth-based political coalition. He said at the convention in August:

We don’t need four more years of shouting, bumbling and chaos. We’ve seen this film before, and we all know that sequels are usually even worse. America is ready for a new chapter.

Harris was one of Obama’s earliest supporters when he began running against Hillary Clinton in 2007.

Obama “still running the country”

The former president’s half-brother, Abon’go Malik Obama, said in an interview with The Post earlier this week that he believes Barack is “still running the country” – and will play a ”big role” if Harris wins in November.

The Harris campaign already has several former Obama campaign staffers on board, including strategist David Plouffe, Stephanie Cutter, who was Obama’s deputy campaign manager in 2012, and Mitch Stewart, Obama’s outreach strategist during both campaigns. Stewart is an adviser to Harris on battleground states, among them Pennsylvania – a must-win for either side.

The key to victory in Pennsylvania could be winning the Latino vote. About 90,000 Latino voters are still undecided, according to University of Pennsylvania professor A.C. Sandoval-Strausz, writing in Conversation. He argues that Harris’ endorsement of Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny could have a bigger impact on the election than Taylor Swift’s endorsement. In 2020, Biden won that state by 80,000 votes – just one point. In 2016, Trump won the state by just 44,292 votes.

Earlier, Elon Musk expressed the opinion that the victory of the Democratic Party candidate Kamala Harris in the US presidential election will be a cruel and unusual punishment for the country. The billionaire emphasised that Trump should return to the White House.

Read more HERE

[beardedmrbean]

AMay 17 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) shows a black and white image of several members of Congress gathered together.

The post criticized Republicans for "attacks on the poor and the sick with the threat of catastrophic debt default," then made a claim about former President Donald Trump:

"Trump increased that debt far more than any president in history," the post says in part. "Under Trump, Republicans − and Democrats − had no objection to raising the debt ceiling three times."

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries shared a similar claim on Twitter that garnered over 11,000 likes. A version of that post was posted on Facebook by the left-wing account Occupy Democrats and shared more than 900 times.

Our rating: False

The total federal debt increased more under the Obama administration in terms of raw dollars than any other president, according to government data. Experts say it is difficult to determine how much debt one president is responsible for since spending and policies can carry over from one administration to the next.

Obama incurred more debt than any other president

The post comes after weeks of standstill between President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy over the issue of raising the debt ceiling, which limits how much the government can borrow, as USA TODAY reported. 

But contrary to the post’s claim, the total federal debt increased more under former President Barack Obama than it did under the Trump administration, according to David Primo, a political science and business administration professor at the University of Rochester.

There are different ways of measuring debt, experts said. 

Using Treasury Department data, the total public debt, which includes intragovernmental holdings and public debt, increased by approximately $7.8 trillion from the start of Trump’s presidency on Jan. 20, 2017, to when he left office on Jan. 19, 2021. Under Obama, however, the public debt increased by about $9.3 trillion from when he was inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2009, to when he left office on Jan. 19, 2017.

Some experts look at debt accumulated each fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1 of a given calendar year and ends Sept. 30 of the next year, according to Primo. That yields similar results.

Fact check: No, Trump is not required to register as a sex offender after E. Jean Carroll case

At the end of fiscal year 2016 − three months before Trump took office − the debt was about $19.5 trillion, according to historical fiscal year debt data from the Office of Management and Budget. That number increased to about $26.9 trillion at the end of fiscal year 2020 three months before Trump left office, marking a $7.4 trillion increase.

However, at the end of fiscal year 2008 before Obama took office, the debt was about $10 trillion and increased to about $19.5 trillion at the end of fiscal year 2016 before Obama left office, netting approximately a $9.5 trillion increase, according to the data. 

There are caveats to these comparisons: Trump was only in office for four years while Obama was in office for eight years. The data for the federal fiscal year overlaps. And in both cases, the debt is measured using the nominal amount added each year, so it doesn't account for inflation.

Some economists believe the debt-to-GDP ratio is a better metric for gauging debt increase because the nominal levels of debt do not matter as much as how much debt the nation has as a share of its output, Primo said. Which president ranks first in this category would depend on the method of calculation used but Trump would not have the highest figures regardless, Primo said.

"In the post-WWII era, the increases in debt as a percentage of GDP were highest during and right after WWII," Primo said. "In the modern era, it’s still not Trump."

Experts say it is hard to blame any one president on rising debt

There are several reasons why it is difficult to cast the blame for increasing debt on any one president, experts said.

Debt increases are due to policies jointly agreed to by Congress and the president, so Congress bears some responsibility, according to Primo.

For instance, Obama signed into law a 2009 stimulus package passed by Congress, which extended former President George W. Bush’s tax cuts, and a tax extenders omnibus bill at the end of 2015, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Both policies worsened debt.

Fact check: Post wrongly claims new House reimbursement policy circumvents Constitution

When Trump was in office, he signed into law the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which lowered statutory tax rates on all taxable income levels and made debt soar, according to the Tax Policy Center and ProPublica.

“The country takes on debt anytime its outlays exceed its revenues,” Primo said. “This can occur due to one-time expenses such as the COVID-19 relief package or to structural changes to the budget, such as tax cuts or the creation of new government programs. In the long run, the biggest drivers of debt increases will be due to entitlements such as Medicare and Social Security.”

All presidents also inherit spending from previous administrations, noted William Hoagland, senior vice president of the Bipartisan Policy Center.

For instance, the Affordable Care Act implemented under Obama carried over to Trump’s presidency. The act expands the Medicaid program and provides health insurance to low-income consumers.

USA TODAY reached out to the social media users who shared the claim for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

The Associated Press and PolitiFact also debunked the claim.

Our fact-check sources:

David Primo, May 23-30, Email exchange with USA TODAY

William Hoagland, May 23-30, Email exchange with USA TODAY

Steve Ellis, May 24-26 Email exchange with USA TODAY

Treasury Department, accessed May 26, Debt to the Penny

Office of Management and Budget, accessed May 26, Federal debt data

Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, July 25, 2016, Has President Obama Doubled the National Debt?

Tax Policy Center, accessed May 30, Briefing Book

ProPublica, Jan. 14, 2021, Donald Trump Built a National Debt So Big (Even Before the Pandemic) That It’ll Weigh Down the Economy for Years

Associated Press, May 18, FACT FOCUS: Who’s to blame for the national debt? It’s more complicated than one culprit

[mightyflamethrower]

Most Americans believe it is unhinged to deliberately destroy the border and allow 10 million illegal aliens to enter the country without background audits, means of support, any claims to legal residency, and definable skills. And worse still, why would federal authorities be ordered to release repeat violent felons who have gone on to commit horrendous crimes against American citizens?

Equally perplexing to most Americans is borrowing $1 trillion every 90 days and paying 5-5.5% interest on the near $36 trillion in ballooning national debt. Serving that debt at current interest exceeds the size of the annual defense budget and may soon top $1 trillion in interest costs, or more than 13% of the budget.

Why would the United States suspend military aid to Israel as it tries to destroy the Hamas architects of the October 7 massacres? Why would it lift sanctions on a terrorist Iran? Why would it suppress Israel’s response to Iran’s missile attack on the Jewish homeland? Why would it prevent Israel from stockpiling key munitions as it prepares to deal with the existential threats posed by Hezbollah?

Why would the Biden administration cancel key pipeline projects and put vast swaths of federal lands rich in oil and gas off limits to production, even as it further drains the strategic petroleum reserve? Why not pump rather than drain our own oil from strategic stockpiles?

Why would the Biden White House’s counsel’s office meet with Nathan Wade, the former paramour chief prosecutor in the Fani Willis Fulton County prosecution of Donald Trump? Why would the third-ranking prosecutor in the Biden Justice Department step down to lead Alvin Bragg’s Manhattan prosecution of Donald Trump? Why would the Biden Justice Department under Attorney General Merrick Garland select Jack Smith as a special prosecutor of Donald Trump—given his past failures as a special counsel and known political biases?

Nihilism only explains so much. A better explanation is that the Biden administration and its handlers knew that there was a good chance that most of their policies would prove unpopular and might even jeopardize Biden’s reelection.

But they also were confident the changes were of such magnitude that the United States would either become—in the infamous phrase of Barack Obama—“fundamentally transformed” or force the next Republican administration to adopt such tough medicine that it would prove untenable politically and the malady would still prove mostly impossible to undo.

After all, how would a Trump administration deal with 10 million illegal aliens who entered the US without audit or legality? Where are they? How would they be found and deported? How many court suits in blue-jurisdictions before blue judges would have to be overcome?

The country has become accultured to a nonexistent border. And so, the left assumes, it would be expensive and difficult to finish the wall, to stop catch and release, to insist refugee status must be obtained before entry, and to deport what is likely now 20-30 million illegal aliens in toto. In other words, the Biden administration may sigh, “Our work is done. Whatever you think about our illegal methods, we forever changed the idea of immigration and the demographics of the country.”

All presidents—Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden—have run deficits and vastly increased the debt since the Bill Clinton-Newt Gingrich compromises that resulted in a temporary period of balanced budgets. But in the case of Biden, there was no need to keep up the multitrillion-dollar deficits, especially as interest rates on the national debt tripled and the service costs now approach $1 trillion per year.

Biden, after all, inherited a recovering economy, flush with post-COVID-19 lockdown stimulatory dollars, pent-up consumer demand, and ossified supply chains. And then he stupidly poured gasoline on the explosive mix by dousing the country with even more federal spending. Now we have the worst of both worlds: high interest rates and nearly $36 trillion to service.

But in the leftist mind, it was worth it, given that left-wing constituencies received vast expansions of entitlements that will be hard to prune back. And unprecedentedly vast debt at levels like our current burden of 123% of annual GDP prove unsustainable. And the historic correctives are brutal: 1) major cuts in entitlements and redistributive spending programs; 2) tax hikes at a time when state, local, federal, and gas, sales, and property taxes—and other “fees”—already take over half the income of most middle-class Americans; 3) hyper-inflation to pay back what is owed with cheap funny money, with the added leftist fillip that those who have dollars lose wealth and those who don’t gain greater access to them; 4) renunciation of debt. We already saw in the Obama era that liberal bureaucrats and courts often reversed the orders of creditors in bankruptcy hearings. When debt becomes unsustainable, historically arise cries of “Why should the poor suffer more when the rich already have enough money and don’t really need to be paid back?”; and 5) efforts to “confiscate” private wealth by giving, in exchange, government “credits.” For example, there have already been floated ideas that 401Ks could be absorbed into the insolvent Social Security system for credit in government benefits.

Most Americans poll strong support for Israel. They oppose the Biden effort to triangulate by revisiting the old Obama nihilist agendas of emboldening the Iranian/Hezbollah/Hamas/Houthis axis to play off against our traditional allies of Israel and the more moderate Arab regimes.

By failing to prosecute nine months of domestic violence committed by pro-Hamas lawbreakers, by allowing leftist campuses to normalize anti-Semitism and pro-terrorist advocacy, and by destroying the once close alliance of Israel and the United States, the left feels it will be almost impossible to go back to the pre-Obama/Biden years. Their legacy, they hope, is a mendicant Israel utterly dependent on U.S. largess—a condition itself predicated on essentially destroying the idea of a secure Jewish state within its present borders.

The Biden administration sought to curb oil and gas production—save for brief periods before the midterm and reelection campaigns, when it drained the strategic petroleum reserve. The point was to acculturate the public to high gasoline prices, to make inefficient solar/wind/EVs projects competitive against artificially costly fossil fuels, and to institutionalize policies that will make it difficult to reopen closed fields, to reboot federal oilfield leasing, and to dismantle costly subsidies for inefficient green fuels.

That Americans paid hundreds of billions of dollars more for their fuels under Biden, that the auto industry is stuck with vast inventories of money-losing electric vehicles that the public does not want, and that the entire economy has been shackled by counterproductive green mandates were considered worth the cost of alienating the public.

The left knows that neither Alvin Bragg, E. Jean Carroll, Letitia James, Jack Smith, nor Fani Willis would have gone to court against Donald Trump if he was either a leftist or had bowed out of the 2024 presidential race. They know no one has been tried on such pseudo-charges, and no one will again be so charged after Trump. And they accept that no republic can long survive if the opposition party seeks to remove the names of its political opponents from the ballot.

But they also know that the left has now established a valuable precedent: oppose woke progressivism, and one will either become bankrupted by indictments or land before a blue-city jury eager to nullify evidence to ensure the accused is jailed and broke.

So the left believes that its new lawfare was well worth the destruction of the entire tradition of equality under the law: 1) Donald Trump has lost a half-billion dollars in fines and legal fees; 2) a court-bound Donald Trump was robbed of weeks of valuable campaign time; 3) Donald Trump can be forever now libeled as a “convicted felon”; and 4) the left has played chicken with the American Constitution and believes it has won, given conservatives would never enter into a destructive cycle of tit-for-tat.

The Biden years did the country great damage and rendered Biden himself one of the most unpopular incumbent presidents in American history. But his agendas may have fundamentally changed the country for decades, if not longer—and will require tough remedies that may be almost as unpopular as the wreckage they wrought.

[saintmeghanmarkle]

Meghans political networking with the Democrats by u/Mickleborough

Meghan’s political networking with the Democrats Meghan’s made a couple of attempts to gain a foothold in American politics:- During the 2020 US presidential elections, she and her husband put out a Time 100 video message encouraging people to vote (Guardian, unarchived)- In 2021 she cold-called Republican senators (BBC) and wrote to Congress (Forbes, unarchived) to advocate for pid parental leave- In 2022 she waded into the overturning of Roe vs Wade (Independent, unarchived)Although to date she hasn’t indicated the party she supports, the inference is that she’s for the Democrats. After all, Donald Trump had been blunt about her; she skipped a state banquet for him, ostensibly because she was on maternity leave (‘I didn’t realise she was nasty’, Daily Mail, unarchived).The Daily Mail (archived / unarchived) sets out how Meghan’s tried to ingratiate herself with key Democrat personages:- Gavin Newsom, Governor of California. It appears that, 2 weeks before the 2020 US presidential vote, Meghan had an hour-long virtual meeting with Newsom. Seemingly Newsom had been under pressure to appoint a woman of colour to replace California senator Kamala Harris if she became Vice-President. (Newsom subsequently appointed Alejandro Padilla, the first Hispanic senator of California.)So there.- The Obamas. There’d been some interaction between Harry and the Obamas. During the 2020 US presidential elections, Meghan spoke at an organisation founded by Michelle Obama - the When All Women Vote Couch Party - to encourage voting. They’d also hired a couple of former Obama staffers.But then, in 2021, the Sussexes weren’t invited to Barack Obama’s 60th at his home in Martha’s Vineyard. This was pretty much the first indication that they weren’t going anywhere - in all senses of the word.- President and Mrs Biden. Again, Harry had had a connection with Dr Biden, chiefly through Invictus. However that hasn’t translated into any invitations to the White House. And of course, the latest is that (i) Dr Biden had been discouraged from attending the Invictus Games in 2022, to avoid offending the Royal Family; and (ii) the Sussexes hadn’t been allowed to cadge a lift on Air Force One when returning from the late Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral.And now we’re in ‘f***ing grifters’ time. Can Meghan pull a rabbit out of her omnipresent straw hat? Has she aces hidden in her giant straw bag (that she took to the farmers market)? Or are her ambitions as solid as straw before fire? post link: https://ift.tt/sdZAqi9 author: Mickleborough submitted: July 21, 2023 at 09:30PM via SaintMeghanMarkle on Reddit

[your-krazy-uncle-bob]

Over the last few months the four icons of the Democratic Party—Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Nancy Pelosi—have hit the campaign trail. 

They’ve weighed in on everything from “right-wing violence” and “election denialists” to the now tired “un-American” semi-fascist MAGA voter—and had nothing much to say about inflation, the border, crime, energy, or the Afghanistan debacle. In this, they remind us just how impoverished and calcified is this left-wing pantheon. 

So why should we take anything they say seriously, given their own records—and especially given their mastery of projecting their own shortcomings upon others as some sort of private exculpation or preemptive political strategy?

Still Hopin’ and Changin’? 

Barack Obama this past week has assumed the role of surrogate president. He is storming the country, while Joe Biden mopes at home or visits shrinking blue enclaves so he can claim post facto, “At least I was out there stumping.” 

Over the last six years, we have become accustomed to Obama’s periodic getaways from one of his three estates. It is always the same. From time to time, he reenters politics to remind us that he did not just cash in on his presidency to become a multi-millionaire. Instead, he is still the Chicago “community activist” of his youth. And so, Obama will not be overshadowed by the Biden crew that is enacting all the crazy things he as president had warned were a bit much even for him. 

At the funeral of the late John Lewis, Obama turned his eulogy into a political rant. He weighed in on the “racist” filibuster, the “Jim Crow relic” that he desperately sought in vain to use to stop the appointment of Justice Samuel Alito. 

At campaign stops, he deplores “divisions” that he, more than any modern figure, helped create. The entire left-wing vocabulary of disparagement for the white lower-working classes (e.g., deplorables, dregs, chumps, irredeemables, etc.) got its start with Obama’s putdown of Pennsylvania voters who rejected him in the 2008 primaries as “clingers.” 

In interviews, Obama suddenly now blasts harsh rhetoric—this from the wannabe tough guy who stole the “The Untouchables” line about bringing a knife to a gun fight. Well before crazy Maxine Waters’ calls to arms, Obama advised his supporters “get in their faces.”

Still, on the campaign trail, Obama appears not so much animated as stale. It is as if he has been suddenly stirred from a long coma that commenced in 2008. It’s the same old, same old—sleeves rolled up. He still resorts to the scripted outbursts of mock anger. And the nerdy prep school graduate still amateurishly modulates his patois—now policy wonk, now breaking into the Southern African-American pastor accent when an audience needs more preachy authenticity. 

He still tries to rev up his crowds with the familiar attacks: Republican demons will cut Social Security, the MAGA semi-fascists are captives of Donald Trump (as if the Democrats have not ceded their souls to woke hysterics), the Republican fanatics will all but kill women by denying abortions, and extremists unlike himself are dividing the country. 

On and on, Obama shouts about social justice. And then he wraps up and must decide to which of his mansions he will fly home (via private jet)—Kalorama, Martha’s Vineyard, Hyde Park, or soon the Waimanalo estate.

Obama offers no solutions much less hints at his own culpability in his sermons. There is nothing about the open border he helped birth. Nothing about Biden’s failed energy policies now bankrupting the middle class that were simply a reification of his energy secretary Steven Chu’s perverse wishes for European-priced gas (“Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.”). 

There is nothing about Obama’s old boasts about shutting down coal plants and skyrocketing electricity (“Under my plan . . . electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.”). 

The Role Model Pelosi

After the terrible attack on her husband, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s colleagues are rightly calling for an end to extremist rhetoric. If we are to follow the Democratic clarion call, what might Pelosi herself do to help us to lower the temperature?

Here are a few modest suggestions. 

Contrary to press reports, conservatives deplored the attack on Paul Pelosi. They want his attacker behind bars with no bail until his trial date. And if convicted they wish him to serve a long sentence before parole is even considered. Let us dish out a proper punishment to David DePape; one that can serve as a model to all such thugs who do his kind of devilish work daily against the innocent and weak—but unlike him, are usually exempt from punishment.

Recall that DePape should never have been in the United States. He is an illegal alien who violated his visa and should have had a warrant out for deportation, especially given his prior history of lawlessness. Would that the illegal alien who murdered innocent San Franciscan Kate Steinle had been subject to the likely punishment that now is awaiting DePape.

So yes, we all must lower the temperature. As speaker of the House, Pelosi can do her part in quieting passions, given half the country are her fellow Americans who do not live in the darkness of lies. She might ask Joe Biden to quit calling them semi-fascists and un-American. 

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Chris Britt, Florida Politics

* * * *

But really, this all goes back to 2008, when the Republicans lost to a ni-i-i-, Barack Obama, which was just so Not The Way Things Work For Us that the party that had first attracted the Old Confederacy to the candidacy of Barry Goldwater; followed by a formal invitation to the unreconstructed Southern inbreds made by Richard Nixon; confirmed by “amiable dunce” Ronald Reagan who was smart enough to announce his candidacy as the proponent of “states’ rights” in Philadelphia, Mississippi, a dog whistle heard by every Southernist from coast to coast; followed up by “respectable” G.H.W. Bush and the “Willie Horton ad;” followed by the incendiary speakership of Newt Gingrich, who proved that the graduate of a Pennsylvania trailer park could be as good a Confederate as any Georgia peckerwood. The result of the loss to That Guy in 2008 was the party going full CuckooBird Crazy - the knuckle-draggers who attended Palin rallies carrying “monkey dolls” turned into the Tea Party, which was institutionalized in 2014 with the creation of the House Freedom Caucus..

From the swearing-in of the Tea Party-dominated 113th Congress in January 2011, the Republicans who actually believed in governing were in the minority and on the way out, whether they knew it or not. The “Establishment” that had previously laughed at the “kooks” who were now newly-sworn-in congress critters, realized that the part of the Republican base that had sent “those guys” was part of their support too.

From that point onward, the two factions of the party were in an unspoken alliance.

The Serious People who knew that the embarrassing grandstanding and performative nonsense the “crazies” were engaged in were sure that the crazies and “learned their lesson” with their failure in the 2013 government shut down that led to the credit rating of the country being lowered, with all the blame focused on the “crazies.” The Serious People just needed to be sure the “crazies” were kept in check.

The “frontman” in the House might have been John Boehner, but the Freedom Caucus that couldn’t govern openly could prevent him accomplishing anything they didn’t agree with. And when he didn’t say “How High” on the way up when they said “Jump!” he found himself obn the slow train to Palookaville.

All Donald Trump ever did was come along and toss a lit match into the fireworks factory.

All the white supremacy that had gown in the Party of Lincoln since 1964 - quietly, of course, the way such racial order is maintained privately in most of American history - finally achieved critical mass and the crock pot boiled over when Trump turned up the heat.

It wasn’t just that Trump didn’t know anyone in Washington to bring into government that the top people in his administration were all Freedom Caucus alumni. They recognized him for what he was: the guy with the key to them running the party openly

As Josh Marshall pointed out, “It’s not the case that every Republican member of Congress is the same as Jim Jordan or Matt Gaetz. But virtually all of them rely on a coalition of voters that wants to support Jim Jordan and Matt Gaetz. That’s really all that matters. The GOP is a balkanized party made up of elected officials who either are Jim Jordan or aren’t willing to cross Jim Jordan.” Or as Will Saletan put it, “The GOP is a failed state and Donald Trump is its warlord.”

In fact, the “Republican Establishment” has been dead since January 6, 2021 when - mere hourse after a violent mob had assaulted the Capitol, 137 Republican members of Congress voted in favor of the mob.

What is going on this week is not a fight between the extremists and the establishment.

It’s between two camps of extremists.

McCarthy and the rest of the “establishment” were among those who refused to certify Biden’s Electoral College victory. McCarthy, would-be “replacement” Steve Scalis, and all the others have faithfully repeated the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen; they all pushed for an end to the military’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate during the budget negotiations last month; they all gave money to Harriet Hageman to assure the defeat Liz Cheney in the Wyoming primary last summer; they all see Marjorie Taylor Greene as being worthy of major committee assignments; they’re all ready to impeach Alejandro Mayorkas, investigate Hunter Biden’s laptop, and the first thing they did yesterday morning was to remove the magnetometers at the entrance to the House floor. They all failed to condemn the attack on Paul Pelosi; they were silent when Trump dined with Kanye West and Nick Fuentes; they support removing Adam Schiff, Eric Swalwell, and Ilhan Omar, as “payback” for Democrats removing Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committees. Even the ones who “support” Ukraine say there can be no “blank check. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Jim Jordan are among McCarthy’s strongest supporters now.

How has McCarthy and any of the “responsible Republicans” been different from the 20 House Freedom Caucus members?

Well, so far, neither McCarthy nor any of the “responsible Republicans” have taken positions like those of 20-19-2022 HFC leader Andy Biggs, who refused to wear a mask even at the height of the pandemic, sought a presidential pardon for participation in the fake elector conspiracy, voted against recognizing the Capitol police who defended him on January 6, opposed aid to Ukraine while the border with Mexico is unsecured, and opposed admitting Sweden and Finland to NATO.

None of them voted with Scott Perry, who opposed a House resolution condemning Qanon and recommended Jeffrey Clark be installed as Attorney General, and also requested a presidential pardon for his activities.

These views place the Freedom Caucus outside the realm of reason, but that didn’t stop McCarthy from announcing surrender to their demands. There is no price McCarthy would not pay, but there is no way for McCarthy to negotiate with people whose only aim is to be seen as opposing him.

This is the predictable end of a political party that descended into mindless demonization of Democrats, the “deep state, immigrants, the medical profession, the “woke” military, the FBI - because it was what its Foxified base demanded.

.And their would-be warlord has discovered he has no control over his minions, because the minions don’t see themselves as such.

Yesterday, people were asking, “Where is Trump in McCarthy’s hour of need?” It’s reported today that he was working the phones for McCarthy all day, but his pleas had no impact. There’s a story that those who received his calls responded to his request they support Kevin with suggestions that Trump should become their Speaker. Naturally, such obvious flattery is Trump’s ultimate aphrodisac; it put him off his demands for loyalty. But this evening, Lauren Boebert got up in the House and publicly told “my favorite president” that he should “knock off telling us to vote for Kevin McCarthy and start telling everyone else to stop (voting for McCarthy).”

Yes, the Purveyors of Conventional Wisdom say that the opposition to McCarthy comes from the fact the 20 rebels can’t trust him, despite his demonstration that he will give in to literally every t demand. But that isn’t enough because they want to break things. Breaking things is now their only goal. Right now, that thing top be broken is Kevin McCarthy.

But all this shows that they cannot be trusted with power. McCarthy and the House Republican caucus are now defined as unfit and weakened by their behavior these past two days.

They can probably kiss their tiny four-seat majority goodbye sooner than 2024, starting with the special election to replace George-Anthony Santos-Devlolder, or whatever his name really is.

They are the Breaking Things Party. That’s it.  

[That’s Another Fine Mess]

[ivankahasbeentreatedsounfairly]

With three weeks left before Election Day, former President Donald J. Trump is pushing to the forefront of his campaign a menacing political threat: that he would use the power of the presidency to crush those who disagree with him.

In a Fox News interview on Sunday, Mr. Trump framed Democrats as a pernicious “enemy from within” that would cause chaos on Election Day that he speculated the National Guard might need to handle.

A day later, he closed his remarks to a crowd at what was billed as a town hall in Pennsylvania with a stark message about his political opponents.

“They are so bad and frankly, they’re evil,” Mr. Trump said. “They’re evil. What they’ve done, they’ve weaponized, they’ve weaponized our elections. They’ve done things that nobody thought was even possible.”

And on Tuesday, he once again refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power when pressed by an interviewer at an economic forum in Chicago.

With early voting underway in key battlegrounds, the race for the White House is moving toward Election Day in an extraordinary and sobering fashion. Mr. Trump has long flirted with, if not openly endorsed, anti-democratic tendencies with his continued refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election, embrace of conspiracy theories of large-scale voter fraud and accusations that the justice system is being weaponized against him. He has praised leaders including President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary for being authoritarian strongmen.

But never before has a presidential nominee — let alone a former president — openly suggested turning the military on American citizens simply because they oppose his candidacy. As he escalates his threats of political retribution, Mr. Trump is offering voters the choice of a very different, and far less democratic, form of American government.

“There is not a case in American history where a presidential candidate has run for office on a promise that they would exact retribution against anyone they perceive as not supporting them in the campaign,” said Ian Bassin, a former associate White House counsel under Barack Obama who leads the advocacy group Protect Democracy. “It’s so fundamentally, outrageously beyond the pale of how this country has worked that it’s hard to articulate how insane it is.”

As they move into what will be their closing arguments to voters, Mr. Trump and Ms. Harris are devoting most of their attention to wrangling over the issues that remain voters’ top priorities — the economy, abortion rights, housing costs and American engagement in the wars roiling Ukraine and the Middle East. The race remains tight, with views about Mr. Trump deeply cemented for most voters.

But the Harris campaign sees fresh political opportunities in Mr. Trump’s latest attacks on democratic principles, particularly among moderate Republicans and independents who disapprove of the former president’s character and polarizing style.

As Mr. Trump spoke Monday night, Ms. Harris stood in a stadium at the opposite end of Pennsylvania where she took the unusual step of playing an extended video montage of Mr. Trump vowing to go after those who oppose him. It included his recent comments about the possibility of military action against the “enemy within.”

“He’s talking about, he considers anyone who doesn’t support him or will not bend to his will an enemy of our country,” she told several thousand supporters at a rally in Erie, Pa. “He is saying that he would use the military to go after them.”

Ms. Harris’s full-throated attacks on Mr. Trump are a notable break from her previous efforts to minimize him as a vestige of the past. Her aides believe voters are still not familiar with Mr. Trump’s statements, nor do they fully understand the stakes for American democracy.

The campaign plans to integrate the video of Mr. Trump’s remarks — which it quickly turned into a television ad — into future rallies. Ms. Harris told aides after Monday night’s event that using the video footage to make her case against Mr. Trump reminded her of presenting evidence at trial.

Some who have publicly opposed Mr. Trump’s return to power are preparing for him to keep his promises. Gen. Mark A. Milley, who served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during Mr. Trump’s administration, told the journalist Bob Woodward that he feared being recalled to uniform to be court-martialed “for disloyalty” should Mr. Trump win re-election. After criticizing Mr. Trump in a pointed retirement speech, General Milley told Mr. Woodward that he installed bulletproof glass and blastproof curtains at his home.

Olivia Troye, who was Vice President Mike Pence’s homeland security adviser before becoming a prominent surrogate for the Harris campaign, said in an interview that her fears about a second Trump administration included prosecutions and a possible threat to her family’s physical security.

She worries that her husband could lose his job, and that Mr. Trump could pardon Jan. 6 rioters and they could target her. She even paused plans to adopt a child because she fears the environment for her family has become too dangerous.

“I have certainly considered what my options are in terms of citizenship in other places,” she said. “We are preparing for the worst-case scenario.”

Such threats of vengeance from Mr. Trump are hardly new: He has been talking about punishing his political adversaries since his 2016 run, when he repeatedly insisted that his opponent, Hillary Clinton, should go to jail and he encouraged crowds to chant “lock her up” at his rallies. Since his defeat in 2020, he has refused to accept that result, continuing to peddle false claims about election fraud.

And he has woven vows of retribution throughout his third campaign, promising to avenge what he sees as his wronged supporters.

“In 2016, I declared, ‘I am your voice,’” Mr. Trump told a crowd of conservative activists in March 2023. “Today, I add: I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.”

He toned down his rhetoric for a brief period before winning the Iowa caucuses in a landslide. But he quickly revived threats for revenge prosecutions and other retaliatory measures after being convicted of 34 felony counts by a New York jury in late May, saying, “Sometimes revenge can be justified.” In June, he took another tack: “My retribution will be success.”

Mr. Trump’s advisers would prefer that he focused on the economy and immigration, believing these issues will give him the edge with undecided voters who may be otherwise turned off by his menacing message.

But even in ostensibly policy-focused speeches or in town halls where he is meant to directly respond to voter concerns around pocketbook issues or public safety, Mr. Trump tends to return to the same grievances that have animated his political campaign this year.

At rallies, he has tried to volley Democrats’ attacks back at them, accusing President Biden of being a threat to democracy when he was still the nominee, and then suggesting Ms. Harris had orchestrated a “coup” when she replaced Mr. Biden on the ticket. At his town hall on Monday, Mr. Trump — whose vehement election denialism spurred some of his supporters to storm the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and disrupt the peaceful transfer of power — argued that Mr. Biden’s exit from the race amounted to the “overthrow of an American president.”

Trump treated the Jan. 6 riot as largely a harmless protest, downplaying the size of the mob of his supporters and their violent intent.

“You had a peaceful transfer of power,” Mr. Trump said, citing Inauguration Day, when he “left the morning that I was supposed to leave,” as proof of “a very peaceful transfer.”

Notably, many of the business and civic leaders seated in the ballroom in Chicago applauded. And there are signs that voters and even some prominent elected officials simply do not believe that Mr. Trump will make good on his most alarming threats.

When Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Republican of Virginia, was asked about Mr. Trump’s “enemy within” remarks during an interview with the CNN host Jake Tapper on Monday, he argued that the former president was referring to undocumented immigrants.

After being asked about Mr. Trump’s suggestion of turning the military against Americans, Mr. Youngkin replied that he didn’t believe that was what the president was saying. The network, he said, was “misinterpreting and misrepresenting his thoughts.”

"I’m literally reading his quotes to you,” Mr. Tapper replied.

The New York Times

By Lisa Lerer and Michael Gold

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/15/us/politics/trump-opponents-enemy-within.html

[truuther]

One month to Election Day. Here’s what to watch

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Richard Luscombe at The Guardian:

The telephone line was a little fuzzy, and the voice on the end gravelly from several days of Covid isolation. Yet the poignancy of the message, and the moment itself, could not have been clearer: “I’m watching you, kid. I love you,” the speaker said. Joe Biden’s warmhearted call to his vice-president, Kamala Harris, at the Democratic party’s campaign headquarters in Delaware on Monday marked a generational shift in US politics, a symbolic passing of the torch from parent to progeny.

In terms of the 2024 presidential election race it was also a defining moment. Harris, a former prosecutor, state attorney general, California senator, and for three and a half years the 81-year-old Biden’s White House understudy, was appearing for the first time as her party’s preferred new candidate, less than 24 hours after her boss’s stunning announcement that he would not seek a second term of office sent a seismic shock across the country. There followed what by any metric could be called a whirlwind week on the campaign trail in an extraordinary month in American history already notable for the attempted assassination of former president Donald Trump, the Republican party’s candidate for the 5 November election.

By Wednesday, Harris was addressing an historically Black sorority in Indianapolis as the Democratic presumptive nominee, having secured the support of enough delegates at the party’s national convention in Chicago next month to clinch the nomination. It was the same day as Biden gave an emotional, nationally televised address from the White House explaining his decision to step aside “in defense of democracy”. “I revere this office, but I love my country more,” he said, urging the country to stand behind Harris. One by one, other heavyweight Democratic figures had stepped up to endorse her, culminating on Friday with the outsized backing of Barack Obama. The former speaker Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, all 23 of the party’s state governors, and elected officials from the most junior Congress members to Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, respectively the House minority leader and Senate majority leader, also gave their approval. “We are not playing around,” Harris told supporters at the sorority gathering in Indiana on Wednesday.

“There is so much at stake in this moment. Our nation, as it always has, is counting on you to energize, to organize, and to mobilize; to register folks to vote, to get them to the polls; and to continue to fight for the future our nation and her people deserve. “We know when we organize, mountains move. When we mobilize, nations change. And when we vote, we make history.” It was a rousing speech from a politician who only three days previously was still in a supporting role, despite weeks of swirling speculation about Biden’s future following his disastrous debate performance against Trump in June. But things moved swiftly once the president’s decision to step aside was announced on Sunday afternoon. The Biden campaign apparatus, and election war chest of almost $100m (£77.6m), became the property of a new entity called Harris for President (Republicans have vowed to challenge the funds transfer in court).

[...] Fundraising operations cranked up, pulling in an all-time record $81m for any 24-hour period in presidential campaign history, a windfall for the newly branded Harris Victory Fund that surpassed $130m, mostly from small or first-time donors, by Thursday night. Seizing on enthusiasm from younger voters that polling found was conspicuously absent for Biden, or the 78-year-old Trump, Harris’s team also released to social media its first campaign video. Beyoncé’s 2016 hit Freedom, the unofficial anthem of Harris for President, provided the soundtrack for a message countering what it says was Trump’s “chaos, fear and hate” vision for the country. [...]

Harris has enormous appeal with generation Z, noted by backing from numerous youth organizations, including March for Our Lives, the student activist group formed in the aftermath of the 2018 mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida. There could have been no better illustration than the declaration on X/Twitter by the British singer Charli xcx that “kamala IS brat”. Viewed by more than 53 million people, the simple message encapsulating a pop culture lifestyle delighted the younger generation and confounded their elders in equal measure. “You just got to go listen to that Charli xcx album and then you’ll understand it,” Florida’s Maxwell Frost, the first gen Z member of Congress, told CNN.

“Whether it’s coconut trees or talking about brat or whatever, the message is getting across to tens of millions of young people across the entire country, and across the entire world, and that’s really inspiring.” Wrongfooted by Biden’s abrupt exit, and alarmed by polls showing Harris gaining ground or even surpassing Trump in popularity, the former president’s campaign scrambled to find attack lines for their new opponent. At a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Wednesday, Trump tested insults including calling Harris a “radical left lunatic” and “the most incompetent and far-left vice-president in American history”. Republican party acolytes have also been busy with racist attacks, accusing Harris, who has Black and Asian heritage, of being “a DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] hire” or “unqualified” for the presidency.

Last Sunday afternoon at 1:46PM EDT/12:46PM CDT, President Joe Biden revealed the decision to step aside from running again on X (formerly Twitter). Nearly a half-hour later, he announced that Kamala Harris would be his preferred successor as the Democratic nominee.

Over the last week, Harris has broken fundraising records left and right, and energized a demoralized Democratic Party to levels not seen since the day Trump lost in 2020 or even the Obama era to volunteer.

#Harris2024 #Harris47 #YesWeKam #Momala #DefeatTrump

[umflowers]

here's glaad's timeline of joe biden's stance on lgbt equality [1] here's the center for american progress recapping biden's efforts toward lgbt equality in his first 100 days in office [2] here's the clip of biden saying he supports same sex marriage during an interview with meet the press in 2012 [3] here's a politico article about how the white house admitted biden voicing his support forced barack obama's hand to announce his support as well [4] here's glaad's tracker for every single thing done under the biden/harris administration in support of the lgbt community [5] in 2018 biden launched the "as you are" initiative to encourage and support family acceptance of lgbt youth [6] the national lgbtq chamber of commerce endorsed biden in 2020 [7] here's a human rights campaign article about biden's 2023 state of the union address, in which he said, "let's also pass the bipartisan equality act to ensure lgbtq americans, especially transgender young people, can live with safety and dignity." [8] here's an article about biden meeting a gay hollywood executive and his family at a party in 2012 and how it influenced him to support same sex marriage [9]

meanwhile, here's trump's glaad article [10] here's trump's glaad accountability tracker, detailing 213 attacks against lgbt people [11] here's a pbs article about trump's lgbt-phobia on the 2024 campaign trail [12] and here's a 2017 article about trump's impact on lgbt people during his first 100 days in office [13] russia used tumblr to spread bullshit in the 2016 election. [1] [2] [3] [4] stop being so fucking gullible. you're going to get large swaths of people you claim to care about and passionately want to protect, killed. go vote, and vote for biden. if you wait for a perfect candidate you'll never once place a vote, but you'll negatively impact the lives of millions of innocent people in terrible ways every single time you abstain or vote third party, handing votes to the republican party.

[1] https://www.hrc.org/resources/president-bidens-pro-lgbtq-timeline [2] https://www.americanprogress.org/article/timeline-biden-administrations-efforts-support-lgbtq-equality-first-100-days/ [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyjYg3ZYFfQ [4] https://www.politico.com/story/2012/05/obama-expected-to-speak-on-gay-marriage-076103 [5] https://glaad.org/biden-harris/ [6] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/joe-biden-launches-as-you-are-initiative-to-promote-lgbtq-acceptance/ [7] https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/national-lgbtq-chamber-commerce-endorses-joe-biden/story?id=72714924 [8] https://www.hrc.org/press-releases/sotu-human-rights-campaign-president-bidens-focus-on-supporting-transgender-young-people-highlights-that-anti-trans-legislative-attacks-are-an-emergency [9] https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/biden-changed-his-mind-about-gay-marriage-after-meeting-hollywood-n1255150 [10] https://glaad.org/gap/donald-trump/ [11] https://glaad.org/trump-accountability-tracker/ [12] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/how-a-second-trump-presidency-could-impact-the-lgbtq-community [13] https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/first-100-days-how-president-trump-has-impacted-lgbtq-rights-n750191

I’ll say it again, please just grit your teeth and vote for Biden…