Marco Rubio used to be a normal politician. Yes, he was a conservative and he was full of shit in many different ways. But he was taken seriously on foreign policy as someone who understood the issues, even if people disagreed with him ideologically. He worked on immigration reform and had collegial relationships across the aisle. And at one time he was considered one of the prime GOP contenders for the presidency. Now he routinely panders to the dumbest MAGA conspiracy theorist, pushing whatever the cult demands. It’s unclear if he’s just become one of them, buying into every nonsensical bit of BS the fever swamp spits out or if he’s just cynically exploiting it for power. It actually doesn’t matter which because in the end it illustrates that the GOP is now fully merged with MAGA and whether Trump wins or not, there is no going back. They’ve trained tens of millions of their followers to think like this and they are now stuck in the same delusional rabbit hole and can’t get back out. Will it take generations to purge this from the body politic? Will it even be possible?
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Probably not a good idea if you care about what’s happening in the Middle East. I appreciate him revealing his decision making process — “hit first and worry about the rest later.” What could go wrong? The Miller Center has an interesting overview of Trump’s foreign policy in the first term. It was all over the place. He is an isolationist who nonetheless built up the military and approved any number of military actions. He was heavily involved in Syria and his vaunted outreach to North Korea resulted in Kim Jong Un continuing his nuclear and ballistic missile program even as Trump boosted his prestige on the international stage. We all know what he did with Russia. His treatment of our allies was outrageous and completely gratuitous. In my opinion, he reversed as much of Obama’s policies as he could mainly because he didn’t know anything and that was an easy choice. (People around him were happy for him to do it because they genuinely disagreed with the policies like the Paris Accords and the Iran nuclear deal. If Obama had been against them, Trump would have been for them.) There was no coherence to his actions.
Don’t tolerate disinformation Got cases of bottled water here. Still without power and flushing/washing water (nine days so far); there’s power in three houses across the street. I’m fine here in the most accessible city in the region, just inconvenienced. Others are far worse off Many who have lost homes (here too) or jobs and businesses will need longer-term support. People need hazmat gear to do cleanup along the rivers. Rescuers are still getting to people still cut off in hundreds of isolated coves and by washed-out bridges. In some cases, it’s one home at a time. This woman lives in my county and works in the next county south. She addresses the uys for memalicious BS you’re seeing in social media. Screw those guys for me, please.
Elon Musk said at that rally that he’s saving the first amendment by backing Donald Trump. Shortly after assuming office in January 2017, President Donald Trump accused the press of being an “enemy of the American people.” Attacks on the media had been a hallmark of Trump’s presidential campaign, but this charge marked a dramatic turning point: language like this ventured into dangerous territory. Twentieth-century dictators—notably, Stalin, Hitler, and Mao—had all denounced their critics, especially the press, as “enemies of the people.” Their goal was to delegitimize the work of the press as “fake news” and create confusion in the public mind about what’s real and what isn’t; what can be trusted and what can’t be. That, it seems, is also Trump’s goal. Elon’s making that happen for him every single day. Twitter is a sewer of lies.
Some new polling from Data For Progress: These findings suggest that Harris has been effective at improving voters’ perception of how she would handle various economic issues, including top issues like reducing inflation, and by extension, reducing the cost of housing and groceries. While a plurality of voters think Vance won the recent vice presidential debate, voters still have a more favorable opinion of Walz than Vance overall, and choose Harris over Trump by 3 points in a head-to-head race. Even Fox is having a hard time spinning the economy: I guess this is good news? More people have decided that they can believe their eyes over GOP propaganda? Good news. But damn, it should not be this close. Look at this guy.
But it won’t be. The rest of the media has hardly mentioned it “Here is a true smoking gun. People that worked for Trump, speaking openly about what ought to be a truly impeachment-level offense: an American president refusing to sign off on disaster aid to people he thought weren’t sufficiently supportive of his political ambitions.” They literally had to bring him data showing Republican voters in Orange County before he would sign the emergency declaration for California’s devastating wildfires. We knew he’d threatened to do it. We didn’t know he actually did it and had to be talked out of it by staff. For people who think all this talk about how he was held back by the adults in the room in the first term is overblown, this should put that to rest. And guess what? There won’t be any adults in the room next time. .
Trump dreams of The Gilded Age Trump is the dumbest rock of dumbest rocks with his tariff fetish. He’s invoking the ghost of William McKinley. Heather Cox Richardson this morning: By pointing to McKinley’s presidency to justify his economic plan, Trump gives away the game. The McKinley years were those of the Gilded Age, in which industrialists amassed fortunes that they spent in spectacular displays. Cornelius and Alva Vanderbilt’s home on New York’s Fifth Avenue cost more than $44 million in today’s dollars, with stables finished in black walnut, cherry, and ash, with sterling silver metalwork, and in cities across the country, the wealthy dressed their horses and coachmen in expensive livery, threw costly dinners, built seaside mansions they called “cottages,” and wore diamonds, rubies, and emeralds. When the daughter of a former senator married, she wore a $10,000 dress and a diamond tiara, and well-wishers sent “necklaces of diamonds [and] bracelets of diamonds, sapphires, and rubies.” Americans believed those fortunes were possible because of the tariff walls the Republicans had begun to build in 1861.
Maybe she can persuade a few swing voters to do the same I once wrote that Liz Cheney was the most dangerous woman in America. I thought she could easily be the nominee in 2024 and believed that she’d be worse than her father because she was just as right wing but had served during the chaotic Trump era. I cautioned that “Democrats should work very hard to keep the loyalty of women who have left the GOP in recent years. Cheney or Haley could potentially get them back if the Dems are perceived to have failed them.” I had come to the conclusion that it was likely that the first woman president would have to be a Republican because I didn’t think Independent men (and maybe some Democrats too) would vote for a Democratic woman, fearing that they just aren’t “tough enough.” Cheney was in the GOP leadership at the time and had made it up the ladder faster than anyone I could remember. She came into the job with a stellar Republican pedigree as the daughter of Dick “prince of darkness” Cheney and had backed Trump to the hilt. She was tough as nails and also seemed to be a pretty savvy politician. She worried me. A lot.
Check out this pattern. They drive it up and Democrats bring it down. And they’ll do it again, all while braying about government spending and paying off their rich friends: Women know: The economy is never perfect. There are always problems, mostly borne by the poor and working classes. But as economies go, this one is as strong as we’ve seen in many years. If it weren’t for the right wing propaganda machine and the reluctance of the media to admit this, people would have realized it sooner. It’s morning in America, people! Wake the hell up!
From Brave New Films: E. Jean Carroll V. Donald Trump is a powerful documentary that brings to life the brave testimony of writer E. Jean Carroll, who accused former President Donald Trump of sexual abuse. In a landmark legal case, Trump was held liable for sexual abuse and defamation, with a court ordering him to pay $83.3 million in damages. Directed by Robert Greenwald, this Brave New Films production features powerful performances from prominent actors, including Kathryn Hahn, Ellen Burstyn, Lexi Underwood, and Regina Taylor. Through their voices, the film vividly portrays Carroll’s courageous fight for justice. As Election Day nears, E. Jean Carroll V. Donald Trump is a must-watch for anyone concerned about justice, accountability, and the future of American democracy. Watch now and share with friends, especially those in battleground states, as we fight to make sure the truth is heard. A big thank you to Kathryn Hahn, Ellen Burstyn, Lexi Underwood, and Regina Taylor for their incredible performances. And of course, a major thank you to E. Jean Carroll for standing up to Donald Trump. This is well worth watching.