No, Trump isn’t invulnerable A rare article that discusses Donald Trump’s overall vulnerability going into 2024. We all know this, of course, but it’s good to see the media discussing this instead of focusing on him as some sort of juggernaut. He may have a full-blown cult behind him but they do not make up a majority. A significant number of Republicans are leery of him too. He’ll win the nomination easily but all that will do is give him permission to really let his freak flag fly. As Trump and his rivals enter the 2024 election, there are at least three signs of trouble for the front-running former president. Here are some of the things that can and will happen to Trump as he pursues the presidency again. Adverse court rulings The potential of legal trouble is all around Trump, and could pop up any time. This past Tuesday, the Colorado Supreme Court stunned the political world by ruling Trump is ineligible for public office because of the insurrection by his supporters on Jan. 6, 2021.
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If your Trumper uncle starts going on about how terrorists, convicts and insane people are flooding into the country, you might want to tell him to take a look at this. Trump’s on record saying that he’ll continue to say that immigrants from shithole countries are “poisoning the blood of America” and it’s worth taking a closer look at his specific claims. Not that there’s any truth in that statement whatsoever. But what exactly is he referring to? The NY Times did a fact check which is characteristically too euphemistic and polite but it does show that Trump’s lies are worse than ever. WHAT WAS SAID “I read an article recently in a paper … about a man who runs a mental institution in South America, and by the way they’re coming from all over the world. They’re coming from Africa, from Asia, all over, but this happened to be in South America. And he was sitting, the picture was — sitting, reading a newspaper, sort of leisurely, and they were asking him, what are you doing? He goes, I was very busy all my life. I was very proud. I worked 24 hours a day. I was so busy all the time.
Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – December 24, 2023
by Tony Wikrent
14th Amendment
Mark A. Graber [The Conversation, via Naked Capitalism Water Cooler 12-20-2023]
This video from 1987 has been making the rounds. It’s hilarious. And it’s so him: Liars gonna lie: He’s always got some excuse.
It’s really looking like a soft landing:
While filming Lot No. 249, this year's BBC Ghost Story for Christmas, writer-director Mark Gatiss tried to include a Doctor Who easter egg.
George III wrote love letters Heather Cox Richardson remembered Saturday as the date in 1783 when General George Washington stood before the Confederation Congress, meeting in the senate chamber of the Maryland State House, and resigned his wartime commission. “Negotiators had signed the Treaty of Paris ending the Revolutionary War on September 3, 1783.” The defeated British had pulled their final troops from New York City. Most likely Richardson relied on fake news accounts. Important details are missing. It was in fact “the largest audience to ever witness a general’s address, period, both in person and around the globe,” a Washington aide later insisted. But lefty historians transcribed mainstream media accounts of the speech: “The great events on which my resignation depended having at length taken place; I have now the honor of offering my sincere Congratulations to Congress and of presenting myself before them to surrender into their hands the trust committed to me, and to claim the indulgence of retiring from the Service of my Country,” he told the members of Congress. Fake News! Washington never resigned.
Here's a friendly reminder that BBC's Doctor Who & Christmas go hand-in-hand with a look at some of the best that the specials have to offer.
From Clarence Thomas’ potential tax penalties to the complicated history of “Zionism,” here’s a roundup of our reporting from the past week.
“Utterly bizarre” Is this a joke? Clarence Thomas: The Best and Most Incorruptible Supreme Court Justice in U.S. History This Friday encomium to Clarence Thomas, is it Steven Calabresi’s or The Volokh Conspiracy’s idea of a joke? Justice Thomas’s brilliance, and commitment to originalism shine through in all of his opinions. He is more consistent, steady, and reliable than any other justice on the Supreme Court. He almost never follows precedent, but he always follows the original public meaning of the text of the Constitution. He is the very best justice out of 116 to have ever served on the U.S. Supreme Court better even than my old boss Justice Antonin Scalia. Justice Thomas not only talks about the importance of being an originalist; he practices originalism in every majority opinion, concurrence, or dissent that he writes. That’s some bad-ass weed.
Evil is rarely a solo project. Horrors and atrocities of the past may provide context for the horrors and atrocities happening right now in Gaza and the Congo. United States war crimes: Gosh, where to begin? Widespread rape by U.S. servicemen of Japanese, German, and French women; human experiments on non-white U.S. enlisted men “to […]
The post Operation Paperclip (and other crimes) appeared first on Zeldman on Web and Interaction Design.
In today's BCTV Daily Dispatch: Doctor Who, Avatar: The Last Airbender, True Detective, What If…?, Rick and Morty, Night Court, and more!
The right manufactured it, the media and feminists bought in — and Israel is exploiting the outcry.
The post There Was No Cover-Up of Hamas’s Sexual Violence on October 7 appeared first on The Intercept.
A round-up of the legal, policy and campaigning work of Open Rights Group during 2023. What a year! The UK government pursued legislation that weakens our digital rights, biometric surveillance expanded exponentially and World leaders attempted to grapple with (and exploit) the emergence of AI. – ORG fought them every step of the way with […]
Because human joy is anathema to us, we direct your holiday attention to your complicity in the violence in Israel and Palestine.
The post Merry Christmas! We All Belong in Prison at The Hague. appeared first on The Intercept.
Είμαι ο Γιάνης Βαρουφάκης, μ’ ένα μήνυμα εκ μέρους του ΜέΡΑ25 για τη χρονιά που φεύγει και με ευχές για αυτή που έρχεται. Ήταν σκληρή χρονιά το 2023. Τι να θυμηθεί κανείς; Τα άψυχα κορμιά των νέων μας στα Τέμπη; Τους εκατοντάδες των πνιγμένων υπό το ψυχρό βλέμμα της Ελληνικής Ακτοφυλακής στα ανοικτά της Πύλου; […]
The post Ευχές για το 2024 στα στερνά του σκληρού 2023 appeared first on Yanis Varoufakis.
This is Yanis Varoufakis with an end of year message to you all on behalf of DiEM25 – our paneuropean democracy in Europe movement. This year’s festivities come at a time of a genocide that will stigmatise our generation. Yes, we must look after our loved ones, celebrate their achievements, take care of the ones […]
The post Wishes for 2024 in the midst of a genocide – a message on behalf of DiEM25 appeared first on Yanis Varoufakis.
Against the backdrop of the new cold war between the United States and China, the European Union’s top brass seems to be adding to the pressure on China by issuing credible threats in response to four grievances. Alas, the Chinese authorities are probably more amused than alarmed. ATHENS – On the December 7, the presidents […]
The post Europe’s Bad China Bluff – Project Syndicate op-ed appeared first on Yanis Varoufakis.
(He’s not a horse…) I wrote about this the other day but it’s nice that the NY Times is putting this information into wider circulation. I hope they don’t just leave it at that. It’s evidence of Trump’s naturally fascistic personality and more people should know about it. It informs all his recent Nazi rhetoric: In 2020, President Donald J. Trump gave a campaign speech in Minnesota railing against refugees and criticizing protests for racial justice. Toward the end, he wrapped up with standard lines from his stump speech and praise for the state’s pioneer lineage. Then, Mr. Trump stopped to address his crowd of Minnesota supporters with an aside seeming to invoke a theory of genetic superiority. “You have good genes, you know that, right? You have good genes. A lot of it is about the genes, isn’t it, don’t you believe?” Mr. Trump told the audience. “The racehorse theory, you think we’re so different? You have good genes in Minnesota.” Mr.