The all-circus, no-bread party Polling suggests (as I wrote earlier) that Americans really don’t get that things are looking up for them economically. Inflation is down — down by 44% — from last September. Unemployment is at record lows in many states, the lowest in 54 years in February. What Republicans cannot afford is for voters to notice. So it’s culture wars a-go-go (Politico): Republican policy riders seeking to limit diversity efforts, drag shows, Pride flag displays and promotion of critical race theory are rife throughout the House’s dozen proposed annual spending bills, including those that would fund the national parks, pay for roads or maintain U.S. embassies abroad. The cascade of social issues turning up in the must-pass bills is noteworthy for how it’s pervaded this year’s appropriations process — and for how the GOP concerns have spread far beyond top-tier conservative causes such as limiting abortions and gender-affirming care.
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You’ll note that New Hampshire voters pick Vivek Ramaswamy as their dream president over Ronald Reagan too… He posted this rambling screed from Congressman Mike Davis: They all sound like him now. This is what he spends most of his time posting, however: I guess this is what’s known as campaigning in the Republican Party these days.
Less than a day after owner Elon Musk changed the company’s logo from a decade-old internationally recognized symbol with sky-high brand awareness value to the letter ‘X,’ workers had moved in to start dismantling the building’s giant Twitter sign. The only problem was that Musk hadn’t secured the correct permits for the crane now blocking the street, according to a witness at the scene. Officers with the San Francisco Police Department quickly arrived and started “shutting it down,” he tweeted. The half-finished removal operation left only the sign reading just “er.” I think that says it all. After Donald Trump and Elon Musk, I wonder if we might be coming to the end of the “Genius Businessman will save us” era. Nah… Americans just love the idea that being rich means you must be smart. It’s hard to imagine them giving that up even in he face of such humiliation.
Senate Republicans have not been eager to sign onto Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s, R-Ala. one-man blockade of military promotions to protest a Pentagon abortion policy. A new online poll of likely voters from Data For Progress suggests their political instincts might be right: Given two statements, one dismissive of Tuberville’s actions and another supportive, 55% went against the senator’s plan while only 33% backed it. You will note that 57% of Republicans agree with interfering with the military in order to make a point about abortion. Tuberville is right in the mainstream of the party. It’s the party that is out of the mainstream of America,
Nobody works for DeSantis for long Ron DeSantis is apparently in the process of “re-tooling” his campaign in light of the miserable failure it’s been so far. He’s been burning through money using private planes and using the Four Seasons as his stomping grounds. Now he’s firing staff. None of this comes as any surprise to people who’ve been watching his career from the beginning: [T]he latest staff shakeup isn’t an anomaly within the arc of DeSantis’ career. It’s part of a larger pattern of a politician who has struggled to maintain a core group of trusted advisers or loyal employees. During his five years in Congress, his office had one of the highest turnover rates in the House. No employed member from his victorious 2018 gubernatorial campaign team is working in a senior role on his 2024 presidential race. And things didn’t change when he became governor. In his first term, he fired staffers with enough regularity that some formed an emotional support group, according to a 2021 Politico report.
SAG-AFTRA, Social Security and solidarity All of us are in a union. The Union of American Taxpayers. Republicans want to take away our benefits the way entertainment companies want to shortchange the writers, actors and crew who create their products. The SAG-AFTRA strike and this from Digby on Sunday brought that home for me: Of course, it’s important to remember that they are completely shameless and will have no problem screaming “liar!” at anyone who suggests they agreed not to cut social security and medicare. But it will still be useful to have this to point out to voters. And, by the way, this fatuous “we’re only cutting it for the young” has never worked in the past and it won’t work in the future. The old people have kids and grand kids to protect and the young aren’t that stupid. Republicans are counting on older Americans not standing in solidarity with the young. Because they wouldn’t. “Everybody in this business is not rich,” said comedian Leslie Jones in an epic Twitter rant about the SAG-AFTRA strike. She was 47 before she made any money in show business.
What will they do now? A Gallup poll relased this month finds shifts in what Americans find “extremely” or “very important” in their lives. In a headline, “America used to have 2 religions: God and money. Only one of them is recruiting followers, and it’s not Jesus,” Forbes’ Chloe Berger reports: Decades ago, money was listed as extremely important to 67% of respondents, whereas religion was only slightly less esteemed, at 65%. Now, money has surged in popularity, described as extremely important to 79% of those surveyed. Religion, on the other hand, has lost traction, as only 58% regarded it as a very important part of their lives. Money increased in value across the board, and was slightly more important for younger generations than baby boomers (increasing by 14% for those aged 18 to 34 and 35 to 54, and only by 10% for those 55 and older). Despite “In God We Trust” appearing on the coins, it’s buying power, not spiritual power, that average Americans value most these days.
Tim Miller with a word for the pundits who think Tim Scott or Nikki Haley are running in a real primary: THERE’S ANOTHER WORLD out there—one that’s better than ours. In this world there are two healthy political parties waging vigorous primary campaigns with vibrant debates between factions and these factions have genuine disagreements over what policies will best serve our fellow Americans. I don’t begrudge anyone aspiring to build such a world. I don’t even begrudge those who have chosen to live in a blissful state of disreality and disconnect from politics entirely, rather than face the Super Not Great world we do live in. But I would expect professional political commentators, and donors shelling out millions in campaign cash, and the political strategists receiving that cash, to live in the real world. Alas this is not the case. Instead we have a heavily capitalized right-wing ecosystem that exists to prop up an imaginary Republican presidential primary so that the participants can feel better about their party identification.
It appears that COVID is not going to be a big issue in the 2024 election and perhaps we should be grateful for that. It was only three years ago that the entire world was in a health crisis the likes of which we hadn’t seen in over a hundred years. In July of 2020 tens of thousands of Americans were dying each day in the first wave of a deadly pandemic and President Donald Trump was all over television alternately telling the people that they could cure themselves with unapproved drugs like Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin or telling them that the virus was going away and the economy needed to just open up and carry on as usual. It was a terrifying time and the trauma it caused has been very deep. 1.1 million people have died from COVID in the U.S. so far leaving many more family members and friends dealing with the grief and the loss. It’s only recently that it has felt like the country is getting back to normal with the economy fully recovering and a sense of freedom in our business and social interactions. But we may have changed permanently in some respects and not necessarily for the better.
If Trump wins the WH again, get ready to go backwards Axios reports: A reelected Donald Trump could pull several levers to try and pare back federal policies aimed at speeding the transition to electric vehicles. Why it matters: EVs are becoming more mainstream, but they’re still a small share of U.S. car sales, and President Joe Biden has been keen to juice deployment. Catch up fast: Trump, the GOP frontrunner, released a video late last week that, among other things, bashed EV costs. He vowed to reverse what he called a “ridiculous Green New Deal crusade.” Trump’s seeking auto workers’ votes in competitive states like Michigan, at a time when the United Auto Workers leadership is skittish about EVs. The big picture: It’s hard to see the votes for outright repealing the Democrats’ climate law or the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure bill, even if Republicans have both chambers of Congress after 2024. Yes, but: Trump would hardly be powerless. Zoom in: His campaign released a list of proposals alongside the video.