Trump starts eating his own First they came for, etc. (Politico): Donald Trump’s newly installed leadership team at the Republican National Committee on Monday began the process of pushing out dozens of officials, according to two people close to the Trump campaign and the RNC. All told, the expectation is that more than 60 RNC staffers who work across the political, communications and data departments will be let go. Those being asked to resign include five members of the senior staff, though the names were not made public. Additionally, some vendor contracts are expected to be cut. In a letter to some political and data staff, Sean Cairncross, the RNC’s new chief operating officer, said that the new committee leadership was “in the process of evaluating the organization and staff to ensure the building is aligned” with its vision. “During this process, certain staff are being asked to resign and reapply for a position on the team.” The overhaul is aimed at cutting, what one of the people described as, “bureaucracy” at the RNC.
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Brian Beutler had a keen insight in his newsletter today (you can subscribe here) into what’s driving some of Trump’s decisions right now and it seems pretty obvious to me that he is right. Trump is desperate for money and he is open for business, even on Social Security and Medicare which is extremely risky for him: Trump appeared on CNBC Monday—his first mainstream or quasi-mainstream interview in many weeks—and, when prodded over whether he’d reconsidered his position on entitlements, said he will indeed consider cutting the country’s two big retirement programs for seniors. Just like a fusty old Republican. “So first of all, there is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements in terms of cutting and in terms of also the theft and the bad management of entitlements,” Trump said. “There’s tremendous amounts of things and numbers of things you can do,” he added, before lapsing into blather. If you’re deep in the weeds on this stuff or a certain kind of know-it-all you can argue there’s nothing new here.
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont on CBS urged his supporters to vote for President Biden despite the widespread opposition among them to Biden’s continued backing of Israel. “The fight continues to change Biden’s policy in Gaza, but the contrast between Biden and Trump is day and night,” he said. “The election of Trump would be a disaster for this country and, in my view, the world.” I agree with that. It’s both. Apparently, this needs to be said too: Of course Hamas is not a progressive organization. It’s a political organization and you may agree with some of its aims. But it’s also an authoritarian, fundamentalist Islamic group dedicated to violence. Fundamentalist religious organizations are by definition not progressive. I can’t believe that anyone would think they are. Biden is moving on Gaza. Probably not enough but he is moving. Sanders is right. It’s fine to protest (although I think “genocide Joe” is pretty crude and not exactly accurate, “genocide Bibi maybe.) But if you care about Gaza you have to do everything you can to make sure Biden is re-elected.
And still great at doing stuff Watching Ryan Gosling and the Barbie cast perform “I’m Just Ken” at the Oscars last night was the highlight of the wekend. Enjoy. Digby has a viral moment from late in the show in the queue. Come back soon. ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● For The Win, 5th Edition is ready for download. Request a copy of my free countywide GOTV planning guide at ForTheWin.us.
When underdogs fight back “When people feel uncertain, they’d rather have someone strong and wrong than weak and right,” President Bill Clinton advised Democratic leaders in 2002. Enter Donald John Trump, the seven deadly sins on two legs. No way would Americans vote for that walking atrocity, I thought in 2016. Hoo-boy, did I call that wrong. So did Bill’s wife Hillary. Americans chose strong and wrong. The pivot point in the Hero’s Journey comes when, after refusing the call to adventure, she/he crosses a threshold out of the ordinary world into one of challenge and quest. Young Luke Skywalker crosses that threshold early in Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. Did President Joe Biden reach one of those pivot points last week? Some think maybe. Reflecting on the 2008 HBO film, Recount, about the 2000 presidential election, Joe Klein writes in The New York Times: Democrats litigate; Republicans fight. Democrats float toward an almost helium-infused state of high-mindedness; Republicans see politics as a no-holds-barred cage match. President Biden’s pugilistic State of the Union address last week may represent a new direction.
A lot of people won’t believe this post was actually Trump, but it was. The punchline isn’t so funny.
It was the day we all were told to stay home or die There has been a lot of talk in the last week or so about “the week before” meaning the last normal week before the country (sort of)locked down for COVID and changed everything. The trauma of that experience is still with us as it should be. We lost well over a million people from that plague and the government did not handle it well. But as Melissa Ryan explains in her great newsletter, it was way more than COVID: … The week before is a unifying event that all Americans experienced. I’ve also learned that most folks who share their story experienced one or more seismic life changes during the pandemic. Losing loved ones, moving to a new location, and everything in between. We all seem to have a version of that story, and I always find them fascinating. At the same time, I bristle at the idea that this was the week that changed everything. At least in America. In early 2020 we were in the 4th year of Donald Trump’s first term in the White House. Things hadn’t been normal for quite some time, and a seismic cultural and political shift had already taken place.
They held their breath until they turned blue and nothing happened Awwwwww: House conservatives are furious about the government funding bill negotiated by Speaker Mike Johnson that sailed through Congress last week, calling it a betrayal of Republican promises to cut spending and reshape the federal budget. But in a twist, this time they aren’t threatening to overthrow the man in charge of cutting those funding deals with a Democratic-led Senate and White House, even as they’ve begun to paint him as a functionary for status quo policies. House Freedom Caucus Chair Bob Good, R-Va., has blasted the first of two funding packages and said he doesn’t expect a better deal in the second one, which must pass by March 22 to avoid a partial government shutdown. “Because the speaker doesn’t want to do that. He just wants to pass what the Senate wants so that we avoid any conflict,” Good told NBC News, saying that Johnson, R-La., wants to “join hands with the Dems” to “increase spending” and yield “no policy wins.” “The speaker is unwilling to tell the Senate no,” he said.
You don’t have to imagine it: The list goes on. Lara is going to be a rich source of MAGA BS, isn’t she?
Trump’s ally Orban spells out Trump’s Ukraine plan Not that we didn’t know this was his plan to “end the war in 24 hours,” but it’s now been confirmed. He will hand Ukraine to Vladimir Putin and leave Europe to its own devices: Donald Trump will totally stop funding Ukraine if he wins the U.S. election in November, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said following a meeting between the right-wing figureheads. “He will not give a penny in the Ukraine-Russia war,” Orbán told Hungarian state media Sunday. “Therefore, the war will end, because it is obvious that Ukraine can not stand on its own feet.” The longtime allies met last Friday at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, a summit which was lambasted by U.S. President Joe Biden.