Senior, Jr.

Back in 2016, Trump called out Ted Cruz by claiming that Cruz’s father killed JFK.

It seemed obvious to many of us that he was referring to the old conspiracy theory that George HW Bush personally killed Kennedy when he was in the CIA. There’s quite a bit online about it; apparently a lot of people believe in it. But Trump, being Trump, mixed up Jeb and Ted.

Our media, of course, inexplicably focused on Cruz’s reaction instead of Trumps obvious mental oblivion. I don’t understand why, but at the time I assumed that they were afraid of touching the conspiracy theory.

But based on the past eight years of rambling and incoherent speeches that get very little to no coverage, or worse, are entirely sanewashed, it seems more likely that they simply don’t want to talk about Trump’s mental decline.

Now, seeing Trump’s obsession with Hannibal Lecter and conflation of him with immigrants somehow, he appears to be confusing an insane asylum with seeking asylum.

There are only a few more days left until the election and we’re finally hearing small mentions of his “weave,” his name for his stream-of-consciousness word salads. These are too little. Hopefully they are not too late as well.

It's not about illegal immigration

Trump railed about illegal immigrants and the border before, during and after his presidency, and his party has used it as a campaign tool during that entire period as well. But Trump and the Republicans didn't cut it at all. He talked a lot about it, and he deliberately separated families to terrorize them into not trying to come here. But he didn't actually have an impact on illegal immigration numbers.

He did, however, cut legal immigration in half.

If you listen to Trump’s recent speeches and sound bites, in the middle of the all the confused rambling and bizarre tangents, the written rhetoric is now almost entirely about demonizing and deporting legal immigrants.

Trump is now promising to use the Alien Enemies Act for the first time in the modern era. That law was written to target residents here legally.

The Haitian immigrants he and Vance are attacking in Springfield are here legally.

Further, in his latest speeches, Trump has picked back up on talking about the genes of the immigrants. “Bad genes,” he says, as if they determine behavior or cause crime. They don’t, of course, but they do determine skin tone.

It’s not about illegal immigration. It never was, but his campaign is making it so much more obvious now. It’s about race. It has always been about race.

Republican officials and (supposedly) Trump campaign advisers are begging their candidate to focus on policy. They claim it will help him with voters. This raises an interesting question.

What policy?

There’s a party platform thats basically a leaflet. That does exist. Then the only other internal Republican policy paper out there is Project 2025. Despite the fact that his advisers created it, he’s running as fast as he can from talking about that.

There is no policy Trump can promote that doesn’t scare voters away. He cannot win on policy. Voters hate Republican policies when they actually hear what they are.

Trump’s popularity has never had anything to do with policy; it is entirely grievance-based. Trump knows this, and we have to suspect his advisers do too. He’s simply uninterested in that sort of difficult work, so it’s an afterthought in everything he does and says. Imagine him being asked something like, “how does Medicare work? How do your proposals change that?” He would short-circuit or answer a different question, because he would have no idea.

I’m beginning to think that the calls for him to discuss policy are nothing more than a head fake. He refuses to do it, he can’t do it, and he keeps asking crowds to tell him not to do it. Every time someone points out that he once again didn’t discuss policy as planned, or that he went off script, they are subtly reinforcing the idea that he has some popular ideas to share. Even if he did have them, he doesn’t have the interest or intellect required to discuss them.

It’s the blank pile of documents all over again. Just like then there are real documents hidden away that he and his team desperately do not want to share.

It’s important to look at why the GOP held this inquiry in the first place and why the committee is releasing this report now.

This was a clear attempt to level the playing field during the election. When Trump’s impeachments were mentioned to focus groups of independent or undecided voters, they had a major impact on his support. Voters take the impeachments seriously and they actually do hurt him in the polls. Combine that with the true stories of Trump’s personal corruption and that could lose him a point or two. Every point matters in a close election and this one is no exception.

The Republicans believed, perhaps correctly, that if they could paint Biden with the same brush, this would neutralize the impeachment issue. This isn’t some wild theory—it has been openly discussed by the Republican committee members. And with nearly four decades in public office, they were fairly certain they could pull up some dirt.

That turned out to be harder than they expected. In fact, the report focuses on an alleged $27m total that Biden’s son and brother were paid by foreign governments for work they performed during the 39 years Biden was an elected official, with none of that money tied to Joe himself.

That’s a lot of money, to be sure. For perspective, here’s how that number compares to Trump’s family.

Keep in mind that the Trump family members who received this money worked in the White House, and that an estimated $200m went to Donald Trump’s own companies. This is a massive distinction: none of the Biden family members were working in government and Joe Biden himself isn’t alleged to have received any foreign money at all.

(The numbers above are dominated by the $2b that Trump White House staffers Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner received from Saudis Arabia. Removing that amount leaves the Trump family with “only” about 25x the amount noted in the report for the Biden family. Frankly, I’d love to know if anyone has a similar chart for the past 5 to 10 presidents’ families. It would be interesting to see.)

In sum, the entire boondoggle was an embarrassment for Republicans and only underscored how wildly corrupt the Trump term was.

Which is why they’ve released it now. It gives their media something to discuss while the DNC is going on and while Democrats themselves are focused on bigger things. They can promote the bottom line of this chart without mentioning the top line. And just in case, this timing during the convention also allows Republicans to move away from the report quickly if turns out to be as embarrassing to them as it deserves to be.

Donald Trump has been out of his mind since well before ran for office.

Back when he was the butt of jokes at real estate conferences, we all knew Ivanka ran most things and that he couldn’t do any work without her or (perhaps) his sons. She appeared to be the business heir, especially in the hotel side of things, and friends in the industry have told me that she was good to work with. We also knew she would have to follow him to the White House. He had no one else that he trusted to make important decisions for him. As a result, there was some valid expectation that she might be making many of those decisions herself.

Ivanka & Jared were both appointed, and it became painfully obvious that both were horribly unqualified for politics, diplomacy or national policy. Thats without even clearly spending too much of their time making their own business deals from inside the executive branch. Career flatterers and sycophants made quick work of undermining these two newcomers, even as Trump tried to put them in charge of initiatives and programs.

So even though Ivanka often appeared to be the only person who cared that Trump might have an unembarrassing legacy, she wasn’t as much of a tempering influence as we might’ve hoped. Ultimately, her father was the man in charge, and she didn’t have the education or experience to handle him, the far right, or (especially) the country. Frankly, none of the Donald Trump heirs have shown themselves to be any better (morally or in business) than him, and Jared might be one of the worst of the entire bunch.

But here’s the thing.

In a 2nd Trump term, should there be one, there won’t be anyone as “normal” as Ivanka or even Jared. There will be no one there aside from the suck ups, the opportunists, and the extremists. We could end up with a genuinely empty-headed puppet who only cares about looking tough, surrounded entirely by some of the absolutely worst people the US has to offer: a literal rapist who is primed to quickly and easily give in to the most base and violent suggestions that his extremist advisors have to offer.

- ​First proven rapist nominated for president.

- First convicted felon nominated for president.

Number one in so many things!

AOC: If you think a lot of the folks who are in charge of swaying this position are defaulting to the VP, you are mistaken. That is not something to be taken for granted. That would have to be a fight too. So all you folks who are coconut-pilled in the comments, buckle up!

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Biden isn’t being derided and challenged because he’s too old or feeble. It’s because Kamala is too black and too female.

There isn’t even an alternate candidate being proposed. Remove Biden and Trump will win. That’s the play here. That’s always been the play here.

Thiel, Musk & Lavrov have made their pick, and they bought JD Vance. They don’t care about Trump’s health and utter incompetence because they want Vance. The main reason elite Dems aren’t lining up behind Biden right now is because they do not want Harris.

They tried to push her off the ticket for four years. They failed, so now they’re going for the full ticket instead, and they will not mind if Trump wins because of it.

Regarding the Trump shooting.

I don't believe rapists and child molesters should be attacked by their cellmates in prison, and I don't find it funny when people joke about it. I don't worry about their recovery or mourn for the loss, but it does make me sad that we as a society allow it to happen.

An attack on Trump is emotionally no different to me.

I don't think anyone should feel bad for him in the slightest, and I certainly don’t. I DO feel bad that things are this fucked up, and I’m sad for the families of those killed. Trump has used violent rhetoric encouraging this behavior since before he entered politics, and if a disaffected supporter has turned on him, well, we reap what we sow.

He won’t gain support from this. No one is going to suddenly say, “he’s a rapist, a cheat and a conman but I feel sorry for him so he’s got my vote.”

The biggest effect is that the RNC next week is going to be unhinged and over the top, and the far right’s violent rhetoric is going to soon be even more out of control.

Be careful out there.

In his first campaign, Donald Trump famously confused Jeb Bush with Ted Cruz during a debate.

Trump tried to reference the widely known conspiracy theory that George HW Bush was personally and directly involved in JFK’s assassination. It’s a classic conspiracy theory, as far as they go, with lots of great coincidences, reliance on the secrecy of the CIA and general distrust of government overall.

It was odd to see a presidential candidate bring it up, but he had already been bringing up things that candidates simply had not done. For example he pointed out in interviews that Israel had nuclear weapons and we all know that, which no candidate had done, because the US’s official position is to never comment on that, and the press happily stuck to the US position and gave him a pass.

When he bungled who Jeb & Ted were, he simply accused Ted’s dad of killing JFK. That’s nonsensical, unless of course you follow what the nutjobs are saying here and there. And anyone who does immediately knew he meant Jeb.

So what did the coverage focus on? “How will Cruz react to Trump calling his dad a murderer?”

Totally asinine way of looking at the flub. But it was a feeding frenzy clamoring for Ted’s response. I believe that they simply didn’t know how to highlight something they were afraid to touch. That conspiracy theory was too hot to mention without looking like a conspiracist too. I don’t recall a single reporter or news outlet asking Trump about wtf he was thinking. (They may have, but it didn’t rise above the din of Ted questions.)

There has been some improvement in coverage. Eight years ago I think we would’ve seen reporters demanding Biden respond to Trump’s confusion. The fact that this is raising tepid questions about Trump is a major change and a welcome one. There’s a long way to go in covering Trump’s idiotic rambling without cleaning up his quotes, but at least this one thing is finally breaking through the wall of deference that Trump has inexplicably enjoyed.

I think our national media can’t see the forest for the trees here. And many democrats seem to be missing it as well.

This Republican-led process is supposed to be a sham. The point is to make impeachment proceedings, all impeachment proceedings, look like a partisan tool. This is a deliberate and necessary part of the 2024 presidential campaign for Republicans.

When independent voters are polled about Trump and his impeachments are mentioned, that distinctly and consistently lowers his support. His impeachments are a serious weakness with voters, and the GOP knows it. They can’t un-impeach him, of course, but what they can do is to pretend that the trials were partisan (they were not), over policy (they were not), and that this is always the case.

They are counting on Americans forgetting what a clown show Trump’s entire presidency was. And frankly, it might work. Few people want to remember what those four years were like; they were awful in a whole variety of ways and most of us have gladly blocked it out.

Many Republicans also truly do believe that impeachment is a sham process in general and to be used as a political tool. They’re not entirely wrong, since it’s a political process. But the main problem with their approach is that corruption or truth doesn’t matter to them, it’s only about putting points on the scoreboard.

In this case, impeaching the DHS secretary does get them bonus points, even if that is not the main goal. It adds to confusion regarding border policy, and it potentially makes the DHS less effective. These are important outcomes when they’re trying scuttle any sort of solution to problems there as long as Biden is in office. This circus also potentially shifts the blame from Congressional Republicans for not funding the bills they’ve passed onto Mayorkas for not doing them, and away from Abbott for blocking the DHS rom the Texas border.

It’s all about deflection. Never about solutions. When Democrats claim this impeachment is about policy differences, they’re giving Republicans way too much credit. Policy isn’t important to them; this is about power.

“THEY DID IT TO US!” Trump claimed in an August post on his struggling Truth Social platform, demanding Republicans impeach Biden or “fade into oblivion.”

Partisanship in this impeachment was never meant to be a secret, but that does not mean Republicans are exposing their political motivations. This article can’t even describe them, so it’s increasingly unlikely that many voters will see them either.

The point of a Biden impeachment is closely related to the point of the Big Lie. Neither are intended to succeed or to appear thoughtful. They are intended to undermine Americans’ interest in democracy.

The Big Lie is continually deployed by conservatives not to change the election outcome. It’s too late for that, and they know it. It is used to sow doubt and distrust, so that more and more Americans will decide that voting is inherently unreliable, and that it is no longer the best way to select our leaders.

Similarly, a Biden impeachment circus would be used not to remove Biden in a fair process, but to claim that all impeachments are inherently politically motivated and unfair, and that turnabout is fair play whether warranted or not.

This goes hand in hand with Trump’s constant bellyaching about being “politically persecuted,” and his often-stated promises to illegally prosecute Democrats, judges, attorneys, and civil servants if elected. When Trump claims that all charges against politicians like himself are politically motivated, it clears the way for him to open politically motivated prosecutions of his own. When Republicans openly state that their impeachment hearings are politically motivated, they are doing so to claim that Democrats had the same motivation in 2021.

The two impeachments of Trump did hurt him politically, and Republicans know it. Therefore, they’re trying to negate that black mark—not by giving Biden a similar one, as most pundits and press will claim, but by demonstrating that there doesn’t even have to be crimes or corruption to start this sort of proceeding. They are betting that Americans won’t remember just how bad Trump looked before, during, & after those trials occurred, and that this stunt will make the earlier impeachments of Trump look like a circus as well.

They may be right. Especially if a so-called liberal media outlet like MSNBC can’t even connect the dots to see what’s going on.

Seems to me that Biden is completely botching the US response to the war in Israel/Palestine by clinging to the default US position.

Antony Blinken, however, appears to be pushing toward the right direction on Biden’s behalf. I have to wonder if this a case of official representatives doing what needs to be done while the official position stays the same, but I don’t necessarily see evidence of that. It certainly doesn’t seem to be moving the needle in any meaningful way.

The DC conservative/status quo policy bubble is so strong that even a hint at protecting civilians in Israel’s occupied territories is seen as radical. The supporters outside the beltway, the ones that actually have a vote in the next election, the ones that Biden needs to win, don’t see the world this way.

If Biden loses the general election to Trump next year, and he very well might, this is where it happened.

Meanwhile, our average evangelical Trump supporters are all over Facebook telling their friends and neighbors that the attacks on Gaza fulfill biblical prophecies, that Israel must destroy the Palestinians, that Trump has done the will of God and helped set this in motion by relocating the embassy to Jerusalem. The logic goes like this: “Trump is an instrument of God setting the stage for Israel’s return to the Jews. The Jews will then be violently destroyed upon the return of Christ, who will rule over all mankind and bring about the end of times.” It’s ludicrous for thousands of reasons, but there’s no reasoning with them. They are expecting Trump to win and to kill however many Palestinians remain.

Please, please, Americans, stop electing people who want to end the world.

And please, please, Biden, get your shit together and stop allowing anyone in your administration to conflate Judaism with Israel. That’s not a healthy path for anyone who seeks peace and wants to protect their Jewish and Arab friends and neighbors. Americans should not support the genocide of any people. Not Israeli Jews. Not Palestinians. Take that position and make it clear.

Edit: Interesting podcast here from Dec 7 describing Biden’s “bear hug,” his cautions, and how the administration is trying to shift Israel’s response, despite today’s UN Security Council vote. Observers are apparently expecting Biden to start directly & publicly confronting Israel’s government within 4-6 weeks, and Israeli officials are hinting that they know it.

Do any of you also suspect that the “difficulty” some news outlets see with Fani Willis’s case is rooted in a subtle prejudice against the intelligence of a local state official vs a federal one? Plus, she’s black and a woman?

Frankly, it will be surprising to me if she doesn’t at least get a dozen convictions out of her work, and her case will write the overall narrative for the history books by tying all these thread together. She’s very experienced with RICO, and very experienced overall—her office has prosecuted over 12,000 cases since she’s been in it.

Trump’s team must be desperately seeking a way to move this case to a federal court so he can drop it if he wins the election. (Which is why Smith has to keep it small and move fast—his is over if a Republican takes office.)

When trump ran for office, we joked that he’d be our last president if he won. It was unsurprising but still shocking when he tried to make it happen.

When he took office & clearly had allegiance to Putin, we knew US intel wasn’t safe. But seeing it’s true is still shocking.

I don’t think it’s because trump is turning out to be as greedy & venal as we’ve known him to be since the 80s.

I think it’s because his greed is accompanied by so much predictable stupidity.

Here’s a link to the January 5, 2021 PowerPoint deck providing talking points and strategy for Trump supporters to steal the presidential election. It was distributed among trump loyalists and was reportedly turned over to the Jan. 6 committee in a Mark Meadows email.

What I find most interesting about reading it now isn’t the boldness of it, the amateurishness of the slides, the absurdity of making a PowerPoint for a coup, or the sloppiness of the plan.

It’s recognizing the talking points that were so clearly followed by tv commentators & pundits. It’s seeing in print how all of the options revolved around Pence, explaining why the rioters were searching for him and shouting about his betrayal of them. It’s the awareness of how many people were out there acting on this message from trump’s inner circle. This document provides clarity to a lot of actions that appeared delusional at the time, and links them together.

This is a smoking gun showing sedition at the very highest levels of US government.