94) I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that the #SupremeCourt decided to avoid taking a position on #DonaldTrump’s assertion of extraordinary presidential immunity.
Likely they’re hoping that the case will be strung out past the election
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/scotus-rejects-jack-smiths-request-to-expedite-trump-appeal
95) What does #NikkiHaley’s flub of the most basic of #CivilWar questions tell us about the state of the #GOP?
Simply put, the #RepublicanParty is committed to pandering to #racism both overt and subterranean.
#Haley’s choice to avoid acknowledging slavery is the worst kind of pandering to retrograde types who would have us pretend that the disgusting, “peculiar institution” was not central to America’s great conflict
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/12/28/nikki-haley-civil-war-slavery-history-00133281
96) Sadly we are faced with yet another bad mob movie sequel for 2024
A brilliant set of portraits of America’s most loathsome family from the wonderful #AnnTelnaes
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/11/03/ann-telnaes-cartoon-trump-family-legal-issues/
97) In two panels #ClayJones captures the hypocrisy that is #GOP politics. Genius stuff
#USPolitics #Election2024 #Trump
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/1/2/2214953/-Cartoon-Disqualified-voters
98) Can anyone say skinflint #billionaire?
Amusing to hear on #NPR this morning, that #Trump had raised a whole $10,000 on behalf of #Jan6 rioters
The former narcissist-in-chief, is not known for going out of his way to aid supporters who have done his bidding
99) Feb 8 is now a big date on the #Trump calendar
#SCOTUS has decided to hear the #Colorado ballot exclusion case and whether the 14th ammendment excludes #DonaldTrump from running for President
The Colorado #GOP primary is scheduled for Mar 5
#USPolitics #Politics #Election2024
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/05/us/trump-supreme-court-colorado-ballot.html
100) Good speech from #Biden yesterday. Delivered with plenty of passion.
Great idea to launch his re-election campaign on the day before this ugly anniversary that is #Jan6th.
It framed the stakes effectively for the election and dominated the news media yesterday and this morning
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/01/05/biden-democracy-speech-00134118
101) This should not be a surprise to any casual observer of #Trump.
Cruelty is a feature of his personna and a function of unresolved childhood development difficulties.
Mocking the challenges, limitations and difficulties of others, soothes Trumps deeply unacknowledged psychological problems
Clearly #Biden’s Valley Forge speech hit hard, the Pavlovian response was predictable from Trump’s stunted psyche
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/01/06/trump-biden-stutter
101) Good piece on #Biden and his drive to retain electoral success in the PA, MI and WI #SwingStates
Article makes the point that #POTUS has crafted a populist industrial policy which diverges from that of his Democratic predecessors
What say you, do you agree?
102) What does it mean to be an #evangelical Christian in America today?
Church attendance is declining. Does that mean that cultural identity as an EC has become more important than doctrinal matters?
How has #DonaldTrump and his dubious adherence to Christianity persuaded ECs to support his candidacy?
Is a sense of persecution more important than #abortion?
Good profile piece at #NYT ⬇️
#USPolitics #Politics #Election2024
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/08/us/politics/donald-trump-evangelicals-iowa.html
103) A big moment in #DonaldTrump’s #jan6th legal travails
At stake is whether #Trump has presidential immunity. Should the court rule against the former President, he will likely request a ruling from a full panel of the DC Circuit Court
Trump’s strategy is to slow down the legal process hoping that electoral victory will enable him to avoid prosecution
104) Disappointing, but not surprising to see such lame legislation being proposed to counter the use of AI in political advertising. Far more can be done then requiring a disclosure of the use of #AI in political ads
I’d suggest the unapproved use of a person’s voice or likeness to create fake video or audio, should be prohibited
Will #Election2024 be a barrage of AI enhanced untruths being blasted at us?
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/11/us/ai-election-ads-state-legislators.htm
105) A reminder of how divorced from reality #Trumpism is from facts.
#Brexit has proven to be a train wreck yet Donald #Trump is parading #NigelFarage around the #IowaCaucus as some kind of hero
Donald Trump pleaded with his Iowa Republican supporters to brave the frigid weather Monday and turn out in droves to gift him a dominant victory in the state’s caucus and push him closer to a rematch with Joe Biden for the White House.
106)This chart is likely making the #Biden campaign smile.
Despite #GOP purveyors of of economic doom and gloom, Americans are realizing that the #economy is improving.
It's taken a while for this story to break through, but the steady reduction of #inflation and strong #JobGrowth numbers eventually swamp #RightWing propaganda
The James Carville adage applies: "It's the economy stupid" and the economy is looking better
107) #Trump mental confusion makes another appearance on the campaign trail.
Apparently #NikkiHaley and #NancyPelosi have melded into one person.
Heck both their names begin with “N” and they’re also members of the ever growing enemy list, why not roll em up together in one big ball of hatred?
108) Good piece from HCR on the Far Right’s attack on American institutions
What is missing from is a theory on what effort the attack serves. Can’t say we look to Trump for a rational explanation. The man has little space for such thinking being incapable of understanding of his own mind and rarely controlled impulses
This is a not criticism of the piece, more pointing to the impound developing a narrative for persuadable voters
https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/january-20-2024
Last night at a rally in New Hampshire, former president Trump repeatedly confused former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, who is running against him for the Republican presidential nomination, with Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), the former speaker of the House.
109) The inevitable has happened and a little earlier than expected.
The #DeSantis campaign is no more and the chastened Governor of #Florida is now genuflecting and tugging his forelock before #DonaldTrump
Apparently, a suposedly gussied up version of #Trumpism doesn't fly. That notion has been cast upon the ash heap of history. It is either #Fascism #Trump style or nothing else for the majority of the #GOP faithful
#USPolitics #Politics #Election2024
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/01/21/ron-desantis-drops-out/
110) As the #GOP primary race draws to a close before it has barely started, the only question left is, can #NikkiHaley make any kind of dint in #Trump's dominance of the #Republican Party.
We'll know on Tuesday when the #NewHampshire primary takes place. Unless former Governor Haley is within an ass’s roar of Trump, that will be curtains for the #Republican primary
#USPolitics #Politics #Election2024
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/01/20/new-hampshire-primary-independents-haley-trump/
111) After today’s #NewHampshire primary, we’ll likely see the end of #NikkiHaley’s quest for the presidency
While Ms. Haley might be a more palatable than the #facist candidate known as #Trump, her campaign shone a bright light on the absurd historical fact avoidance engaged in by many #GOP types
https://open.substack.com/pub/davidpepper/p/cartoon-tuesday-nik-haley-history
#Republican #Primary #Republican #USPolitics #Politics #Election2024
112) Today’s parlor game features the punditry class yammering about whether #NikkiHaley will remain in the #GOP Primary race following an 11% defeat by #DonaldTrump in #NewHampshire
While Governor Haley outperformed expectations, many polls had her down >20%, a route to victory is minuscule with the exception of judicial rulings derailing #Trump
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/01/24/trump-5-takeaways-new-hampshire-00137511
113) What purports to be #NewsMedia on #FoxNews
#RightWing pundit deeply upset with #TaylorSwift's call to register to #vote
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knHdSQ4dcms
#USpolitics #Politics #Election2023 #NotJournalism #Journalism
114) The #Trump #Republican Party is not in the business of solutions, unless a positive outcome can be claimed to the exclusion all others.
Come to think of it, the #GOP is not in the business of possitivity, their activities might be better described as being deeply invested in the cultivation of fear and anger, particularly directed at people with darker skin
#MittRomney is calling it correctly:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/romney-trump-immigration-border-senate
Romney, armed with the candor of a politician nearing the end of his career, on Thursday denounced Trump’s efforts to wave Republican senators off an immigration deal so the former president can keep using the border as a cudgel against Biden.
115) What needs to be done this election year when #democracy is under threat?
The need to organize and take action is imperative. A good place to start is getting involved with @indivisibleteam which has groups all across America gearing up to persuade the persuadable
Visit their site and signup for your local group => https://www.indivisible.org
116) An excellence from Clay Jones
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/1/29/2220184/-Cartoon-Swifty-Bowl
116) I've been thinking a lot about the structural issues that plague Western democracies. My particular focus is on #USPolitics as I live in #NYC and am staring down the barrel of a nasty presidential election
Job 1 is to make sure #Trump is not relected.
Job 2 is to reduced the malaign influence of extreme wealth on democracy - this is a #Garch" problem which I go into on this #podcast episode. More to come in the next few weeks
117) The #RightWing media sphere is going all sorts of bonkers with #TaylorSwift conspiracy theories
If takes a special type of paranoia to suggest that #SuperBowlLVIII is rigged. Apparently a #KansasCityChiefs victory featuring the pop star’s boyfriend #TravisKelce’s will be used to announce a #Biden endorsement
Madness, but that’s where we’re at
118) a good piece here from Todd Belton on #RagePolitics and why it works for #Trump particular during the primary season when polarized and partisan #FarRight voters are at their most influential
Trumpist voters crave binary and simple messaging. They abhor notions of uncertainty. General election voters are more accepting of the laws of probability where outcomes are not certain. Call it grown up thinking
https://open.substack.com/pub/thinkbigpicture/p/trump-2024-campaign-rage-conservatives
119) The good news on the #Bidenomics economy has been coming for months. Most voters are not regular traders of economic news, the stuff is too dry and subtle for most
Eventually the flood of good economic registers and is it continues, as recognition slowly takes hold. Yesterdays impressive job numbers will have registered favorably with more voters and #Trump claims of a poor #economy are becoming increasingly less credible
120) To the surprise of no one, the House #GOP and #MikeJohnson are not the slightest bit interested in doing a deal on #border #migration. They’re busily engaged in forelock tugging mode before Dear Leader aka #Trump and his master, Czar #Putin
#Republican politics are only about one thing, tax breaks for the #garchs in #Russia, #America, and all other geographies
Want to fix something for the other 99.9%. Look elsewhere
Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump and House Republican leaders denounced a bipartisan Senate deal to impose new US border restrictions and unlock billions of dollars in Ukraine aid, endangering its prospects for passage.
121) Throughout his life #DonaldTrump, has fought legal actions directed at him through frivolous appeals and delaying tactics
The big question now is whether the absurdity of the total presidential immunity appeal process will resolve for #Jan6 insurrection trial to take place before #Election2024?
Will the #SupremeCourt accept the appeal or will other strategems be deployed to delay the case beyond the election?
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/06/trump-criminal-immunity-supreme-court-00140027
122) Some have posited that #Election2024 will be the first #AI #Election
Looks like a certain #Texas based corporation by the name of Life Corporation and its owner Walter Monk can expect to experience some deep law enforecement scrutiny for deceptively impersonating Pres #JoeBiden's voice
Hopefuly this will pursued agressively to dissaude other dirty trick types
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/06/us/politics/biden-robocall-new-hampshire.html
123) Excellent piece from #HCR on the #NewsMedia, Pres #Biden is losing it campaign. Required reading for thoughtful types
Let’s be clear, there is a perverse incentive faced by many for-profit #journalism outfits. A close race, increases clicks, reads, views, listens.
The owners of many of these corporations are also likely fond of billionaire friendly tax policies that #Trump will support
https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/february-9-2024
Yesterday, Special Counsel Robert Hur, appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland in January 2023 to investigate President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents before he was president, released his report. It begins: “We conclude that no criminal charges are warranted in this matter. We would reach the same conclusion even if Department of Justice policy did not foreclose criminal charges against a sitting president.” The Department of Justice closed a similar case against former Vice President Mike Pence on June 1, 2023, days before Pence announced his presidential bid, with a brief, one-page letter.
124) As sure as day follows night, #Trump dusts off his #Putin loving playbook
Just par for the course for a man who has more contempt than understanding of the world order established through the sacrifice of the greatest generation 80 years ago
As #NancyPelosi said of #DonaldTrump back in 2019 :
“With him, all roads lead to Putin”
🔑 https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/11/us/politics/trump-nato.html
125) It’s more than troubling that #NikkiHaley has to advise voters that #Trump’s anti-NATO #Putin hugging utterances are a problem
Why #DonaldTrump is so quick to to embrace the geopolitical goal’s of #Russia’s arch murderer is a matter of speculation
Maybe it’s #Kompromat, maybe if a love of #petrogarch oil money or just #autocracy fan boy stuff
Whatever, it’s hugely dangerous to world peace
126) Sometimes i agree with even the most obnoxious of Republicans
127) There is more blood on the hands of #VladimirPutin with the death of #Aleksei Navalny today in a remote Russian prison
Sadly #Putin’s regime of enablers is not confined to #Russia. Far too many #GOP types are obediently following #Trump’s autocratic loving “leadership” and betraying #Ukraine by withholding financial support for the #UkraineRussiaWar
An ugly day for freedom and democracy. RIP #Navalny
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/16/world/europe/aleksei-navalny-dead-russia.html
128) I'm rarely aligned with #MikePence. Frankly his #politics are pretty much diametrically oppoed to mine.
However today we're in agreement, on the this saddest of days ,when a brave man has died far from friends and family in a Russian penal colony
Those #GOP politicians that equivocate and waffle when it comes to supporting #Ukraine in #Congress are aiding and abetting #Putin. #Democracy and geopolitical stability are at stake
https://thehill.com/policy/international/4472262-pence-gop-putin-apologists-navalny-death
Former Vice President Mike Pence said Friday is no room in the Republican party for “apologists” for President Vladimir Putin after Russian authorities reported the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Pence issued a strong rebuke of the Russian leader in a series of posts on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Putin is a…
129) Cash is getting a little tight in #Trump world. Apparently inflating one’s net worth to the size of a bull frog is not a winning business strategy.
The #Engoron ruling requires the posting of a bond or actual cash within 30 days.
Given the former president’s has filched much of the cash from those foolish enough to donate his collection of PACs, I imagine his current crop of attorneys must be wondering if they’ll be paid
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/16/nyregion/trump-civil-fraud-trial-ruling.html
130) Central to #Trumpist politics is the stoking and packaging of fear which produces and reinforces a radicalized #FarRight.
Few produce fear based #TV better than #Sinclair broadcasting and that fear and its ugly stepchildren, anger and revenge, are the fuel for #Trump’s election campaign. Nothing else is being offered beyond vengeance
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/16/sinclair-broadcasting-conservative-media-trump
In the American news environment, with a modicum of effort, quality news is available.
My choices are PBS and NPR which are NOT ruled by profit imperatives which seem to generate the worst type of #NewsMedia
The problem is, #Sinclair’s production of cheap programming in #NewsDeserts locales, unless viewers are curious, alternatives are not readily available
I'm not suggesting that we shouldn't care about the dreck that #Sinclair puts out, that governing law should not be changed to avoid the awful role up a genericization of media outlets, I simply choose not to participate in for profit #newsmedia because with a very few exceptions, it's basically crap.
Martin Nutty
Voron