No ordinary election, a plebiscite Sunday is not one of our heaviest traffic days at ye olde blog. For any readers who missed Digby’s repost of Brynn Tannehill’s long Twitter thread (sorry/not-sorry, Elon) about what another Trump presidency would mean, take a gulp of strong coffee and go read it. Take the warning seriously. Seen in one place, the detailed string of changes Trump, his MAGA followers, his oligarch backers, and Christian nationalist organizations behind Project 2025 mean to enact to remake this republic into something more resembling Hungary, if not Russia, shook me up. It’s like a murder of a country or a democracy: we see that they have the motive (Christian Nationalist vision for the US requires that democracy die), the means (replacing everyone + Insurrection Act + ignoring the courts), & the opportunity (amoral Trump as President) We have intent, and boy howdy have they telegraphed this one.
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Trump gets another break: A New York appeals court agreed to slash millions off of the bond Donald Trump must post to cover a $454 million civil fraud verdict while he appeals it, reducing it to $175 million after the real estate mogul claimed he’d have to sell properties at a loss to raise cash. The ruling Monday comes on the day Trump faced a deadline to either pay the fine or post a bond for 120% of the judgment to put it on hold while he appeals. That would have amounted to nearly $545 million dollars. He has 10 days to post the bond, the court ruled. The decision means Trump may be able to push ahead with his appeal without the risk of his assets being seized by New York Attorney General Letitia James for lack of payment. The appeals court did not offer any explanation behind their decision. Read the order. There’s more. This is a huge win for Trump. They don’t call him Teflon Don for nothing.
Rubio, desperate for the VP nod, attempts a full Pence It wasn’t pretty: Can Trump forgive him for this? Marco Rubio, the Florida senator who once suggested the size of Donald Trump’s hands indicated smaller-than-average reproductive anatomy when he and the future president both ran for president eight years ago, has indicated a willingness to serve as Mr Trump’s vice president should the 45th president succeed in becoming the 47th after the November presidential election. During one March 2016 primary debate, Mr Rubio responded to Mr Trump calling him “little Marco” by suggesting that Mr Trump’s genitals were undersized by remarking on the size of the New Yorker’s hands. “And you know what they say about guys with small hands,” said Mr Rubio, who was then a sitting senator while Mr Trump was merely a real estate developer turned reality television host. The future president defended his manhood shortly thereafter, falsely claiming that no one had ever commented on his hand size before even though the now-defunct Spy magazine had routinely referred to him as a “short-fingered vulgarian”.
Here’s another excellent insight about Trump’s seemingly inexplicable appeal by Samuel Earle in the NY Times: In recent months, Donald Trump has been trying out a new routine. At rallies and town halls across the country, he compares himself to Al Capone. “He was seriously tough, right?” Mr. Trump told a rally in Iowa in October, in an early rendition of the act. But “he was only indicted one time; I’ve been indicted four times.” (Capone was, in fact, indicted at least six times.) The implication is not just that Mr. Trump is being unfairly persecuted but also that he is four times as tough as Capone. “If you looked at him in the wrong way,” Mr. Trump explained, “he blew your brains out.” Mr. Trump’s eagerness to invoke Capone reflects an important shift in the image he wants to project to the world. In 2016, Mr. Trump played the reality TV star and businessman who would shake up politics, shock and entertain. In 2020, Mr. Trump was the strongman, desperately trying to hold on to power by whatever means possible. In 2024, Mr.
Don’t go counting chickens Yes, yes, nobody wants to front Donald “91 Counts” Trump half a billion to cover his bond in the New York fraud trial judgment while he appeals (as he always does). Trump attorneys “have asked appellate judges to reduce, delay or waive the bond requirement.” But what will New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) do to collect when he can’t cough up the cash by tommorrow (Monday)? Well? “Nothing happens immediately,” The Washington Post advises: The appeals court generally issues rulings on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so there is very little chance it will act by Monday on Trump’s request to waive the bond requirement. If it doesn’t, and if Trump doesn’t post a bond by then, legal experts say there is nothing preventing James from calling on the New York City sheriffs or on city marshals to begin seizing his assets. But there are reasons for her to wait. Legal experts say Trump has a chance of getting some type of relief from the appeals court. If James begins moving on his assets before the court rules, she may have to backtrack afterward. She also may consider the optics of moving quickly.
It was sooo bad The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols has a book called The Death Of Expertise which he’s updated with a new chapter on the pandemic. He’s interviewed in the magazine: Isabel: You argue that one mistake scientists made was to take on the role of elected officials. Can you talk me through that shift? Tom: If you look back at those White House press briefings, where you had people such as Dr. Deborah Birx and Dr. Anthony Fauci standing there uncomfortably while Donald Trump ranted about bleach and lights, you can see where they and other experts felt the need to clarify useful policies in a way that ordinary people could follow, especially because elected leaders—and not just Trump—were making a mess of things. Early in the pandemic, for example, I was impressed by then–New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who seemed like a steady and capable hand on the tiller. But Cuomo—as we now know and as I discuss in the book—was desperately trying to cover up his own lethal mistakes. The scientists, people we’d mostly never heard of at the state and federal levels, stepped forward to issue guidance.
For all the bellyaching we all do about everything it seems like this should be something we should be more proud of.
That’s making the rounds all over right wing social media. I’m not kidding. With the news that ISIS is taking responsibility for the terrorist attack in Moscow (and the US intelligence agencies have confirmed it) the right is experiencing some serious confusion. This is because Trump has said repeatedly that he defeated ISIS and recently has been saying that he did it in four weeks. The truth is that the US did manage to kill al-Baghdadi and ISIS was forced to give up territory in Iraq and Syria but Trump didn’t really have much to do with that. ISIS is still operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan ad has been active against Russia for a while. Nonetheless, Trump’s lie is his one big claim to war leader fame and he’s milked it enough that his cult followers believed that he’s defeated them with his bare hands of something. They’re bewildered and creaked out so this is what they’ve come up with to soothe their damaged their psyches.
Too good not to share Elaine Benes’ dancing (Seinfeld: “The Little Kicks“) was “like a full body dry heave set to music.” Her “little kicks” and the rest lost Elaine the respect of her office staff. For reasons that remain a mystery, Donald Trump’s “dancing” and cringey flag-fondling never seem to induce similar shock and revulsion among MAGA cult members. Somebody a year or so ago saw the similarities and mapped in Trump as Elaine’s dance partner. I just saw it. DON’T LOOK if you have a sensitive stomach. As the man says below, nicely done! ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● For The Win, 5th Edition is ready for download. Request a copy of my free countywide GOTV planning guide at ForTheWin.us.
Brynn Tannehill, author of , “American Fascism: How the GOP is Subverting Democracy” wrote this twitter thread which I think is a nice succinct recitation of what awaits in a second Trump term: Someone sent me this yesterday: The basic premise is that the guardrails of US democracy are so strong that Trump couldn’t turn the US into a dictatorship even if he had 2 more terms. This is hopelessly naïve. Let’s break it down. First, a history lesson. The Weimar Republic lasted precisely 51 days between moustache-guy being named Chancellor and the Enabling Acts. Masha Gessen warned in 2016 in “Rules for Surviving Autocracy” “Your institutions will not save you.” “The system is too strong” is silly. The Philippine constitution was a near exact copy of the US constitution after WWII. Dictator Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in 1972 using many of the same rationales used by MAGA (leftist plots, need for an autocrat) The article blows off several crucial elements in the danger. First (and already discussed briefly) is the vulnerability of the system to subversion.