25) Good piece from David French at the #NYT on not just the rage, but also the joy of being a #MAGA fan.
The joy of belonging to a group of like minded people who are facing down an imagined set of awful lefties determined to destroy America
It is a cultish mindset. Can it be cracked? Should an effort be made to deprogram Trumpists? Should the movement be left to fade into irrelevancy assuming #Election2024 is lost?
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/06/opinion/maga-america-trump.html
26) The #GOP in Congress are doing their bit to move #ReproductiveRights and #LGBTQ issues up the national agenda for #Election2024.
The #HardRight look to start #CultureWars on major legislation wherever possible. Clearly an indication that they want a national #abortion ban and to ostracize the #queer community
A more than questionable winning strategy
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/14/us/politics/defense-bill-house-ndaa.html
Republicans loaded the measure with a raft of social policy provisions — including limits on abortions, gender transition procedures and diversity training — that have little chance of surviving in the Senate.
27) Good piece from #NPR on young #RuralVoters which will be an important constituency for #JoeBiden in #Election2024 particular in #Georgia and #NorthCarolina and other purple states.
There are of course rural voters in every state and so the #Biden campaign has to hone its message to bleed away some of these votes which have trended #GOP
28) #DonaldTrump is attempting to delay legal proceedings against him, a practice consistent with his past, when he sought to exhaust the financial and emotional resources of those that instituted proceedings against him
American voters now have a candidate for #Election2024 who looks to his election for relief from his legal woes
29) #DonaldTrump’s minions have crafted a disturbing plan to centralize more authority under the presidency.
Should such a plan be implemented, independent federal agencies will be purged for those deemed insufficient loyal to the president.
The ability to resist Caligula-like commands will be rescinded. Unchecked partisan power will become the norm
#USPolitics #Politics #Election2024
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/17/us/politics/trump-plans-2025.html
30) In an unsurprising development, we can expect #DonaldTrump to be indicted yet again. This time for his involvement in the #Jan6 plot to overturn the 2016 #election
This has been a long time coming. We recently learned of the #FBI’s sluggish effort to investigate #Trump’s involvement in the coup. Many low level supporters are now serving time while Trump remained untouched. That changes now
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/07/18/trump-jan6-target-letter/
31) #ReproductiveRights and #abortion were major factors during the midterm elections in 2022. #Election2023 will be no different, if anything the issue will likely be more potent with the recent conviction of a 19 year old #Nebraska women subsequent to a medically induced abortion which violated Nebraska’s then 20 week gestation limit. Nebraska has since lowered the limit to 12 weeks
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/20/us/celeste-burgess-abortion-pill-nebraska.html
33) The perpetration of #bigotry and #racism is an increasing feature of many current #GOP politicians.
#RonDeSantis leads the pack in his overt willingness to delegitimize the horrors faced by black Americans during enslavement.
For what? To appeal to the basest instincts of a certain section of GOP voters still invested in the superiority of “white culture” and to deny the attendant racism that still haunts American society
🔑 https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/21/us/desantis-florida-black-history-standards.html
34) The war on #Libraries by “conservatives” is just another front stoked up against the #LGBTQ community at the behest of those exploiting #CultureWars for political gain.
In truth the #GOP which has been fully co-opted by #Trumpism has nothing to offer on making lives better for #Americans beyond cultivating rage and fear directed at smaller less powerful groups. It is classic #RightWing behavior from the 1930s
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/22/us/pride-books-library-protest.html
35) #DonaldTrump claims to be the best bet against #JoeBidden in #Election2024.
In my view, he’s going to be extremely hard to beat for the #GOP nomination. That said, primary voters are hard core political types and there views tend to be more extreme than most American voters.
Come the general election #Trump, is likely the least electible Republican
37) Increasingly #Election2024 is shaping up as a #JoeBiden vs #DonaldTrump rematch
The #NYT has new polling information on #Biden which shows his numbers improving from tepid levels last year
If #Bidenomics continues to yield improved economic data, he is going to be a hard man to beat despite dissatisfaction and ambivalence over his age
The election will be decided my independents who are increasingly disaffected by #Trump and his legal woes
🔑 https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/01/us/politics/biden-trump-poll.html
37) The indictment of #DonaldTrump on charges related to #Jan6, is unsurprising and his been telegraphed for months
What is interesting, is that the charges do not include allegations specific to the organization of violence on Jan 6. That doesn’t mean more charges aren’t forthcoming. I wonder if that case and establishing the chain of evidence is to difficult to make or is simply not there?
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/08/01/trump-indictment-takeaways-00109309
38) While much of the focus of #Election2024 is focused on #Trump’s legal woes or #Biden’s age, the Us economy has been improving steadily on the back of legislation signed into law during the first two years of #JoeBiden’s administration.
Biden’s polling numbers aren’t great now, but continued economic improvement will yield good results come election time.
39) Things are not going well in the #RonDeSantis campaign.
One wonders whether his call for "throat slitting" directed at members of the Federal Government and invocations of the mystical and mythical Deep State were designed to make seem tougher than #Trump ?
General reaction across the #NewsMedia seems to be one of disgust. There doesn't seem to be major fist bumping going on within the #DeSantis faithful
#Election2023 #RighWing #HardRight
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4135422-desantis-vows-to-start-slitting-throats-on-day-one
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect that Scott Brown is a former senator from Massachusetts. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Sunday said he would “start slitting throats on day one” when it comes to taking on the “deep state.” DeSantis made the remarks at a barbecue campaign event in Rye, N.H.,…
40) Excellent report from #PBSNewsHour on #GOP candidates who have little to say on the extreme heat experienced by many Americans in the South, a geographical base of party support.
While GOP candidates acknowledge that #ClimateChange is real, they’re unwilling to acknowledge the impact of #FossilFuels
Will this be an #Election2024 campaign issue?
The 2024 Republican presidential campaign season is in full swing and candidates are stumping on a host of key issues. But one topic that’s missing from their agenda is climate change. Despite a summer of record-setting heat, new polling shows that Republican voters still don't see a warming planet as a concern. As William Brangham reports, neither do the GOP candidates who want to lead them.
41) Tomorrow is a big day in #Ohio as a special election has been called to decide if amendments to the states constitution require more than a 50% majority vote.
The special election was likely triggered to thwart a Nov election ballot measure which would enshrine #AbortionRights measures in the Ohio constitution. That ballot measure is likely to pass the current 50% threshold
Ohio voters will go to the polls Tuesday to vote on a ballot measure that could raise the threshold for changing the state constitution — and in the process have a direct impact on abortion rights in the battleground state. The measure, known as Issue 1, would raise the threshold for amending the state constitution from…
42) #Ohio voted NO to a #GOP sponsored ballot which would have made it more difficult to amend the state constitution
While Ohio was considered a swing state in the past, it has increasingly been dominated by the GOP who have supermajority control of the state legislature and have passed highly restrictive #abortion legislation
43) I need to start this post by first leading with: #Abortion rights are #HumanRights.
#ReproductiveRights also fall into the same category and will be a major issue in #Election2024.
The #GOP now realize there is no escape from the political trap created by the #SupremeCourt with the #Dobbs decision which overturned #RoeVsWade
The issue will drive #WomenVoters for the foreseeable future. Good article on the issue from @tpm_rss_bot
Republicans are reeling this week, days after Ohio voters handily defeated a ballot initiative widely understood to be a proxy fight for a coming proposal to enshrine abortion protections in the state constitution.
@tpm_rss_bot
43) it seems likely that the District Attorney of Fulton County, Fani Willis, will bring charges this week against #DonaldTrump and his associates for the pressure campaign and fake electoral scheme used in an attempt to subvert the 2020 #Georgia presidential results
If so, former President #Trump will be facing 4 criminal indictments as he attempts to reclaim the presidency on #Election2024
The #NYT details the sprawling scheme in Georgia 👇
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/14/us/trump-georgia-election-results.html
44) The quartet of #Trump indictments are now complete. In addition to the former President, 18 additional defendants, many high level former administration officials, are named in the charge.
Finding space in Trump’s 2024 trial calendar will be challenging without regard for his #Election2024 ambitions which represent on off ramp for the candidate should his campaign meet with success
Donald Trump and 18 allies have been indicted in Georgia over efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state. The criminal case announced Monday night is the fourth brought against the ex-president and the second this month to allege that he tried to subvert the results of the vote. The indictment details dozens of acts by Trump and his allies to undo his defeat in the battleground state. Other defendants include former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and a Trump administration Justice Department official, Jeffrey Clark, who advanced the then-president’s efforts to undo his election loss in Georgia.
45) How will #Election2024 be affected by the #TrumpIndictments?
Politico has published a poll indicating that Americans want a speedy trial, that a slim majority think #Trump is guilty, and that a conviction would damage Trump’s election possibilities
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/08/25/ipsos-poll-trump-indictment-00112755
46) Today Enrique Tario of the #ProudBoys was sentenced to 22 years for seditious conspiracy for his roll in the attempted #Jan6 coup.
The leadership of both the Proud Boys and the #OathKeepers are now serving significant sentences. Their activities on Jan 6th were triggered by #DoanldTrump.
Will #Trump also be called to account? He is after all the man that lit the fuse? What are the implications for American #Democracy should he too end up with a stiff sentence?
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/09/05/sentencing-enrique-tarrio-proud-boys-00114095
47) When #DonaldTrump overtly courted the #ProudBoys during the 2016 Presidential Debates
48) Tom Nichols at #TheAtlantic does an excellent job in detailing what is at stake in #Election2024, quite simply #democracy will be on the ballot.
#TheHeritageFoundation has provided a blueprint for another #Trump presidency which is a model for strongman despotism. Should that plan be implemented, there will be no easy recovery in reestablishing the rule of law.
49) Excellent piece on the heavy lift faced by #JoeBiden on switching #Ohio back to the #DemocraticParty column
#Biden identifies as an old style #Democrat who represents the interest of the #WorkingClass. Post #NAFTA, many Ohioans felt abandoned by the Democratic Party and became more receptive to the #GOP. Reversing Ohio voters perception of the Democratic Party as solely interested in the issues of the coastal elites, will be challenging.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/10/ohio-democrats-biden-working-class
50) To the absolute non surprise of anyone following #USPolitics, #KevinMcCarthy gave the green light to an #impeachment inquiry directed against #JoeBiden
In times past, presidential impeachment was reserved for overt misdeeds, think Nixon and the #Watergate break in. Now #GOP politics has degenerated to the point where political payback and #Trump fealty outweighs facts and evidence gathering
#Politics #Biden #HunterBiden #HardRight #FreedomCaucus #RightWing
https://www.npr.org/2023/09/12/1198922531/mccarthy-biden-impeachment-inquiry
51) A great piece on #MittRomney from in #TheAtlantic.
What is most disturbing is the profound isolation of Romney from his senatorial colleagues many who agree with him have opted to place their position and attendant reelection prospects above any sense of fidelity to the US Constitution
There is no honor left in the #GOP. The last honorable man in that caucus, that believed his oath, is walking away from the crumbling remains of the #RepublicanParty
52) #Wisconsin will be one of the battleground statres of #Election2024. The state will also be host to the #GOP convention.
The GOP dominates the state legislature and is attempting to remove a recently elected liberal justice from the state supreme court. Why?
With the election of Justice Protasiewicz, Wisoconsin's Supreme Court now has a liberal majority. That majority will likely redraw the Gerrymandered State and Federal election districts
This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM's home for opinion and news analysis. It was originally published at The Conversation. Wisconsin’s April 2023 state Supreme Court election was historic.
53) The #GOP state party has a lot of variables to consider should they opt to use #impeachment in attempting to remove Justice Protasiewic. There is no guiding ethical precedent for such an action
Excellent exchange between Ben Wikler, the #Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair and Josh Marshall of @tpm_rss_bot at the video 🔽 .
The #GOP seems to have found itself under increasing national scrutiny as this drama plays out. More to come!
54) A third party, #Election2024 candidate is a big concern for the #Biden re-election campaign.
What disturbs #Democrats sleep at night is that #NoLabels will put up a plausible #centrist candidate who will draw votes from #JoeBiden
In theory, more choice is better right? Not in America, and right wing #oligarch types understand this, it's why they're playing with the notion, and looking for a political patsy to do their bidding
#Politico has part of the story here:
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/08/30/trump-donor-no-labels-adviser-00113395
55) In a similar vein, to the prior post, #CornelWest's #GreenParty candidacy, poses a threat to #JoeBiden and while I’m an admirer of Professor West, it would be better if he joined forces with #Biden to defeat the existential threat to democracy that is #DonaldTrump
#BernieSanders understands what it is at stake in #Election2024
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/08/27/sanders-biden-cornel-west-00113123
56) Despair is setting in for the monied types who wanted a nonsense free candidate as an alternative to #DonaldTrump
As #Trump support continues to coalesce in the #GOP primary, oligarch checkbooks are shutting.
There are rumblings that #NikkiHaley might be an alternative but it’s questionable those rumaors will manifest into a gusher of life giving campaign cash.
Politico has the story on the richies’ handwringing 🔽
58) #DonaldTrump and his companies ruled to have engaged in fraud. Specifically #Trump inflated his assets to borrow money from banks
The ruling was accompanied with an order which effectively cancelled the right of #Trump to business in #NewYork
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/09/26/trump-fraud-trial-inflate-net-worth-00118269
59) With the #UAWStrike almost 2 weeks old, #DonaldTrump went to #Michigan to posture as a supporter of American labor.
What did he do? He held his event in a non-unionized parts plant where he railed against #ElectricVehicles and environmentalists
#Trump does not care about #OrganizedLabor, the #environment and the #EV transition
Trump wants Americans to use 19th century fuel and 20th century tech in the 21st century. The #oilygarchy has no better advocate
60) Tomorrow, the Sunday politics talk shows will be filled with spinning about who blinked first on the threat of a government #Shutdown
Let’s start here, #KevinMcCarthy blinked. #McCarthy understands that shutdowns are bad #politics and have yet to yield a positive result for the #GOP at the ballot box
Assuming the #Senate passes the bill, the next item in the immediate future is whether the #Speaker will face a vote to remove him by the #FreedomCaucus
https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2023/09/30/congress/stopgap-passes-00119280
61) The #GovernmentShutdown is a creation of the #GOP. The #RepublicanParty only becomes interested in #BalancedBudgets when out of, or with limited power.
Inevitably, the GOP’s onset of fiscal rectitude is accompanied by a desire to cut #spending which in turn will be used to reward the donor class with #TaxCuts. There is never any interest on the other side of the budgetary equation, namely raising taxes on the wealthy
This is the only governance idea the GOP has: #TaxCutsForTheRich
62) While a shutdown has been averted with stopgap funding, we get to do this all over again in November.
It is important to frame the chaos properly, shutdowns are a #GOP thing. A casual browse of history tells us that. This is part of a decades long #RepublicanParty effort to convince America that Washington is dysfunctional
So let’s be clear, the GOP is the party of dysfunction. These budget fights are a feature not a flaw in their strategy.
https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2023/09/30/congress/senate-votes-averts-shutdown-00119301
63) Pete Buttigieg, Secretary of Transportation explains the expense associated with a government #Shutdown threat.
#Buttigieg outlines the consequences of another similar action when the 45-day stopgap funding is used up
It's always a pleasure to listen to #PeteButtigieg who is articulate on the challanges of being in #government. He makes a refreshing diversion from the incoherence of what passes as political discourse on most TV coverage
But he’s bragging about screwing up his own job though.
If he hasn’t been able to secure funding to move forward then he shouldn’t be experiencing these massive costs that are based on assumptions of funding that are tenuous.
Without the funding in hand he should have been in DC working to secure the funding that he wants, not jetting around the country and involving himself in projects that aren’t funded.
It’s such a superficial stance for him to be taking.
I don’t think the funding of the government is really the domain of the Secretary of Transportation. Last I checked, the power of the purse resided in Congress. While transportation is an important part of governmental spending, it is still a smaller slice of the pie
I reject the notion of “jetting around the country”, the term implies ego stroking. Part of the requirement of being a cabinet member is to draw attention to how tax pay or dollars are being spent to improve the country
Oh, working to secure funding is absolutely one of the major roles of an official at that level.
As head of an agency like DoT, the secretary represents his agency before Congress, laying out plans for their fiscal year and working with them to ensure that the agency’s operations are first worth funding and second that the funding is spent efficiently.
So yes, such a secretary is absolutely key in the funding question.
I will disagree here. The threatened shutdown was a creation of the #GOP and certain members of that caucus who felt the need to claw back political capital perceived lost in the debt ceiling showdown. Attempting to attribute blame for the mess to #PeteButtigieg is in my view a stretch
@mnutty well you’re wrong :)
The fundamental design of the US government involves checks and balances wherein the executive has to constantly ask the representatives of the people for permission to execute, to act sometimes against people when it comes to law enforcement and to generally gain authorization to redirect society’s resources in directions that are hopefully beneficial.
The shutdown was a creation of the idea that the president isn’t a dictator, that he is restrained by the democratic process.
EVERY limit on budgetary authority contains a threat of a shutdown as the president cannot legally spend money without authority.
This is core to civics, core to the design of the US government.
I think you have the cart before the horse. The President can make a budget proposal, he can veto a budget, but ultimately it is up to both the House and the Senate to work together to present a budget for presidential signature
The House majority has simply been unable to work together to put together budgetary legislation that will pass muster within their own caucus and has some hope of passage through the Senate.
This is the House #GOP mess, not #Buttigieg not #Biden
@mnutty you say the House has been unable to put together budgetary legislation, but that’s not true. Here’s just one list of the legislation they’ve been moving on.
But in the end, if Congress doesn’t fund an executive agency that’s literally because they haven’t found the agency to have presented a compelling case for funding.
Well apparently the GOP Caucus was unable to come up with a proposal that would avoid a government shutdown without the assistance of the Dems.
The #GOP is supposedly in the majority in the House and so the onus was on them. They couldn’t figure out how to come up with a package that would pass through the House and be supported by their slim majority. They failed, that failure has been a repeated feature of #GOP politics for more than 30 years
Again, that’s just not factually true.
Republicans overwhelmingly voted in favor of proposals that would avoid government shutdown.
It’s just that Democrats voted them down in proportions that Republicans couldn’t overcome.
The GOP caucus didn’t at all need assistance of Democrats to keep government open. They simply needed Democrats to stop voting to block government funding.
Well that’s not true, with a majority if they could hold their caucus together they should have been able to move this out of the house. Not up to the Dems to make that happen
@mnutty nothing in your latest comment made my statement untrue.
Yes, it’s true that Republicans might have overcome Democrats’ decision to actively oppose progress, but that highlights what I said: Democrats actively opposed progress, setting up the opposition that needed to be overcome.
You might even support the Democrats’ position. Great! But for better or worse we need to judge them for what they did instead of letting them shift responsibility to others.
@mnutty you’re still misunderstanding the situation.
It’s not that I’m blaming the minority party for GOP failure but rather recognizing a bipartisan coalition of 216 representatives who worked across the aisle to successfully shut down the chamber.
It was a success, not a failure.
They moved to shut down the House and they worked together to do it.
Yay.
You're confusing misurnderstanding with dissagreeing
Martin Nutty
volkris